Ruling on Contagiously Ill May Protect AIDS Patients

In a ruling that could protect AIDS patients from job discrimination, the Supreme Court declared Tuesday that persons with contagious diseases are handicapped and are covered under federal civil rights laws.

The court, in a 7-2 ruling, gave a broad reading to a 1973 law barring discrimination against “otherwise qualified” handicapped persons, saying that it covered those with either “actual and perceived” impairments or illnesses.

The justices flatly rejected the Reagan Administration’s view that the law does not cover a person with a contagious disease unless he is suffering an actual “physical impairment.” Using this reasoning, the Justice Department attorneys last year said in a federal guideline that federal contractors could fire an AIDS patient based on a fear--even an entirely unfounded fear--that the person posed a threat to his co-workers.

Even though Tuesday’s ruling concerned a woman with tuberculosis, not an AIDS patient, the high court opinion spoke of the need for employers and judges to rely on “reasoned and medically sound judgments” in deciding whether a person should be hired or fired. Their judgments may not be “based on prejudice, stereotypes or unfounded fear” of a handicap, Justice William J. Brennan Jr. wrote for the court.

Gay rights groups and civil libertarians hailed the court decision as a major victory.

“This decision sends the message that the courts should apply the disability statute expansively and compassionately, whether the issue is AIDS or some other disease,” said Tom Stoddard, executive director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay rights group in New York. “It is a clear-cut repudiation of the Justice Department’s contorted interpretation of the disability statute.”

Nan Hunter of the American Civil Liberties Union called the ruling “an enormous victory against irrationality. The most significant aspect is the court’s rejection of the fear-of-contagion defense. It rids us of an argument that was concocted to try to deny employment rights to people with AIDS who are otherwise capable of working.” Hunter had filed a friend-of-the-court brief jointly with the American Public Health Assn.

A Justice Department spokesman declined comment on the ruling.

Sends Case to Trial Court

The high court neatly got out of the dilemma posed by the case of a third grade teacher who had recurring tuberculosis. After deciding that she was a handicapped person covered by the 1973 law, the court sent the case back to a trial court to determine whether she met the law’s other standard of being “otherwise qualified” for her job. This should be determined, Brennan said, by the “nature . . . duration . . . and severity” of her illness and the “probabilities the diseases will be transmitted” to others.

In a footnote, Brennan added: “A person who poses a significant risk of communicating an infectious disease to others in the workplace will not be otherwise qualified for his or her job.” He added that an employer is obliged to seek a “reasonable accommodation” in a similar job.

In a second footnote that seemed to contradict much of his opinion, Brennan said that the court’s opinion should not be read to cover “a carrier of a contagious disease such as AIDS.” Court observers speculated that the disclaimer was added to get the votes of several moderate justices who are reluctant to sign a ruling that goes well beyond the case at hand. However, the ruling clearly discusses contagious diseases in general and legal experts said that lower courts can apply its broad language and logic to cases that involve other communicable diseases, including AIDS.

Rehnquist Dissents

In a brief dissent, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said that the “language of the Act, regulations and legislative history are silent on this issue,” which “compels the conclusion that contagiousness is not a handicap within the meaning of (the law).” He was joined by Justice Antonin Scalia.

The law in question says: “No otherwise qualified handicapped individual . . . shall, solely by reasons of his handicap . . . be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” The statute covers federal contractors, schools, colleges and hospitals that receive federal funds. Gay rights leaders also noted Tuesday that many states, including California, have state law that extends such protections to employees in private firms.

This case (School Board of Nassau County vs. Arline, 85-1277), began in 1979 when Gene Arline, a teacher from Nassau County, Fla., was fired after her tuberculosis recurred for a third time. She sued and lost in a district court. But in 1985, a federal appeals court ruled in her favor, concluding that “persons with contagious diseases . . . fall neatly within the statutory and regulatory framework” of the 1973 law.

Focus Changes to AIDS

When the school board’s appeal reached the Supreme Court, the focus changed from tuberculosis, a disease that is highly contagious but easily treatable, to AIDS, a disease that is not easily communicated, but is so far incurable.

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is a virus that destroys the body’s immune system, leaving it vulnerable to certain cancers and other rare infections. It is commonly transmitted by anal or vaginal sexual intercourse, from mother to child during pregnancy or through the use of unsterilized hypodermic needles. About 31,000 cases of AIDS have been diagnosed, but estimates are that from 1 million to 2 million Americans are infected with the AIDS virus.

Gay rights groups had said they were worried that the case of the third grade teacher who could endanger her pupils by coughing on them could have resulted in a ruling that would have permitted the firing of AIDS patients who do not endanger those around them.