AIDS and the Law since 1990 This paper will disc

Generally, the Fourth Amendment provides some protection against intrusions such as mandatory blood tests, requiring a search warrant based upon probable cause in the criminal law enforcement setting. Outside this arena, however, courts have often found exceptions to the warrant requirement, especially in the area of employment. The Supreme Court has ruled that in noncriminal investigatory searches, the reasonableness of the search is assessed by balancing the nature and quality of the intrusion upon the individual's privacy interests against the importance of the government's interests alleged to justify the intrusion. Courts have held the drawing of blood to involve less than a significant violation of bodily integrity. In a recent case, a city required that all of its firefighters and paramedics undergo annual HIV tests in order to be qualified as "fit for duty." A federal district court in Ohio found the city's interest in preventing the transmission of HIV to be compelling and upheld the policy. The court also concluded that the firefighters and paramedics had little expectation of privacy, in view of the high

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ERISA), which prohibits employers from discriminating against persons who are HIV infected with regard to plan payments or eligibility to join the plan. In one case, an employee was diagnosed with AIDS five years after joining his employer's plan, and seven months later the employer changed the health insurance program regarding the availability of benefits, reducing the amount available for AIDS treatments, as well as for other conditions. The court held in favor of the company, saying that the changes were consistent with ERISA in that they were meant to protect the plan. During the previous years, the plan had suffered serious losses and the company was faced with either modifying the plan or dropping it altogether. There was no evidence that the changes were made to discriminate against or interfere with the employee's rights. With regard to the third main issue, an employer may not terminate employment or eligibility for plan payments because a person is HIV infected. To do so would constitute intent to interfere with employee benefits protected under ERISA and actionable under Section 510 of the Act. Proving that a company had such an intention may be difficult, however. In one case, the court affirmed the basic
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation Act, Supreme Court, AIDS AIDS, Eighth Amendment, Persons AIDS, Dept Health, Act ERISA, Health Insurance, ADA HIV-infection, infected hiv, court held, rehabilitation act, hiv infection, health insurance, supreme court, ct app, handicapped children, eighth amendment, courts held, special education related, education related services, prisoners infected hiv, americans disabilities act, cruel unusual punishment,
Approximate Word count = 5788
Approximate Pages = 23 (250 words per page)