The Department of Justice sued the state of Tennessee Thursday over a law that turns misdemeanor prostitution charges into felonies akin to “violent sexual offenses” if the defendant knowingly has HIV—a practice that the Department says discriminates against people with HIV.
A Department of Justice podium. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP ... [+]
Under the 1991 law, people in Tennessee with HIV face harsher penalties when charged with prostitution—elevating the charges to “aggravated prostitution,” classified as a “violent sexual offense” that mandates the offender to register as a sex offender, according to the government’s complaint.
The Justice Department alleges that the practice violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and is seeking an end to the law and for all individuals charged with aggravated prostitution to be removed from the state’s sex offender registry.
It’s also suing for damages for an unidentified “Complainant A and other aggrieved individuals with aggravated prostitution convictions.”
According to the suit, Complainant A is a Black transgender woman from Memphis living with HIV who, after pleading to attempted aggravated prostitution in 2012, faced two years in prison and was placed on the state’s sex offender registry—which she now says prevents her from spending time with her nephew alone and led to a violation in 2016, when she failed to notify the state of a change in address after a fire displaced her from her home.
The Department notified the state that it found the law was discriminatory in December, but Thursday’s filing marked an escalation of the matter—Forbes has contacted the Department of Justice for more information on what specifically prompted Thursday’s complaint, but officials had previously indicated that if the state declined to enter into negotiations, the Department could sue.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is a defendant in the lawsuit, referred Forbes to the state attorney general’s office, which Forbes has contacted for comment.
Three to 15 years. That’s the potential prison sentence someone charged with “aggravated prostitution” faces, alongside a possible $10,000 fine. That’s compared to a potential six-month sentence and $500 fine associated with the lesser misdemeanor charge, according to the Justice Department.
The state’s law on aggravated prostitution was already the target of litigation. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state over the law in October. And the Justice Department’s lawsuit comes amid ongoing efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to push states to update or repeal laws that criminalize people with HIV. According to the CDC, there are 34 states with laws that criminalize HIV exposure, though these laws vary—some use HIV-specific language and others are written to target sexually transmitted diseases more broadly. But the CDC says that these laws are outdated—passed during a time when little was known about the disease. Some laws, for instance, criminalize actions that are known to have a negligible or low risk of HIV transmission, like biting, or were written before modern treatments that prevent transmission, like PrEP.
The Department of Justice sued Tennessee last year, targeting its ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The Biden Administration has asked the Supreme Court to review that law after lower courts declined to block the ban.