Federal appeals court rules that pilot can sue feds for disclosing HIV-positive status

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The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco yesterday overturned a district court judge's dismissal of Stan Cooper's damage suit. District Judge Vaughn Walker found that the Federal Aviation Admin and Social Security Admin both violated Cooper's rights by disclosing that he is HIV-positive. However, Judge Walker ruled that Cooper "hadn't been harmed financially and that federal privacy law doesn't authorize suits for emotional distress."

Here's Cooper's backstory:

Cooper, 67, a pilot since 1964, gave up his license after he was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1985, when FAA rules still barred anyone with the AIDS virus from flying a plane. He said he reapplied in 1994 but did not disclose his medical condition.

Cooper's condition worsened in 1995 and he applied for Social Security benefits, with the assurance that his medical records would remain confidential.

He said he regained his health, discontinued his benefits and applied for a renewal of his license in 1998 after the FAA dropped its ban on HIV-positive pilots. He still did not disclose his condition, explaining later that the FAA required 10 years of medical records but didn't say how it would evaluate them.

The FAA revoked his license in 2005 after obtaining information from the Social Security Administration in the short-lived "Operation Safe Pilot," which examined records of 45,000 pilots, all in Northern California, to see if they had committed fraud in obtaining Social Security benefits or a pilot's license.

Cooper pleaded guilty in March 2006 to a misdemeanor charge of submitting a false record and was fined $1,000. The FAA restored his pilot's license in 2006.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/23/BAPH1C5D0J.DTL