Suit Seeks to Add Members to AIDS Panel Who Have Dealt With Disease

Six groups asked a federal court Wednesday to put President Reagan’s AIDS commission on legal hold until members are appointed who have experience dealing with the disease.

However, the action filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen Litigation Group and four organizations active in AIDS work was not expected to have any impact on commission meetings scheduled today and Friday.

Lawyers involved in preparing the suit said they do not expect to have a hearing on their request for a preliminary injunction for two or three weeks.

They said they purposely did not ask for a temporary restraining order--a move that could have put the suit on a faster track--to give more time for the situation with the commission to evolve.

Patti Goldman, a lawyer with the Public Citizen Litigation Group, noted that there are two vacancies on the 13-member panel following the resignations last week of the chairman, Dr. W. Eugene Mayberry of the Mayo Clinic, and the vice chairman, Dr. Woodrow A. Myers Jr., the Indiana state health commissioner, after a reported power struggle.

The groups filing the suit are calling specifically for a commissioner with experience either in AIDS research or treating AIDS patients and one who has the incurable disease.