CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : AIDS Tests OKd for Suspects Who Bite

A California state appellate court upheld the state’s 1986 involuntary AIDS blood test initiative for criminal suspects who attack police and health workers. The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that the voter-approved initiative, Proposition 96, does not violate California’s constitutional privacy protections or federal protections against illegal search and seizure. The appeal court approved a human immunodeficiency virus test on Johnetta Johnson, accused of biting a deputy sheriff during a scuffle at a 1989 custody hearing for her teen-age son. This was the first constitutional test of the law since it was overwhelmingly passed by voters in November, 1986. The appeal court approved the blood test for Johnson even though there is not a single known case of AIDS being transmitted through bites and what the court called the test’s questionable medical value.