The federal government is accusing a southern Indiana town of discriminating against a man with HIV who applied to become a police officer.
The Justice Department said it filed a lawsuit Monday against Clarksville, Indiana.
Clarksville police had offered a job to a man who was already working as a volunteer reserve officer but then dropped the offer in 2015 based on his HIV status, the Justice Department said.
“No qualified individual should lose a hard-earned career opportunity because of misguided views about their disability that are not supported by medicine or science,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the department’s Civil Rights Division.
HIV is a virus that can weaken the immune system.
The man’s HIV is “well-controlled with medication and his viral load is, and during all relevant times was, fully suppressed,” the lawsuit states.
Clarksville’s town manager, Kevin Baity, said the town is working with the Justice Department to “find an amicable solution.”
The man spent 15 months appealing the decision. Clarksville added him back to the list but never hired him, according to the lawsuit.
The man got a job with another police department.