Mr. Doe is a retired U.S. Army Special Forces sergeant who had been HIV-positive but healthy for eight years when he was discharged from an overseas security job with Triple Canopy, Inc., a State Department contractor, because of his HIV status. Our lawsuit, filed in September 2008, challenged both the State Department’s policy prohibiting the overseas deployment of contract employees who are HIV-positive (a violation of the Rehabilitation Act) and Triple Canopy’s discharge of Doe (a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act).
The State Department asserted that its contracts do not bar HIV-positive people from overseas deployment, and pointed the finger at Triple Canopy. Triple Canopy pointed back at State, asserting in a motion to dismiss that it had merely complied with State’s contract requirements.
The case settled in 2009. The State Department agreed to remove from its contracts the requirement that personnel be “free from communicable diseases,” and to clarify that an individual assessment must be made as to any individual’s fitness to do the job. Details of the settlement with Triple Canopy are confidential.
