New Jersey Court Allows Women to Request HIV Testing of Rapists

Following in the footsteps of several other states, the New Jersey Appellate Division Court upheld two state statutes that give sexual assault victims the right to request that their attackers be tested for the HIV virus. The higher court’s decision rejected a Family Court’s claim that compulsory HIV tests violates a defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights. The Appellate Court stated that testing was not an unreasonable search or seizure, because testing does not endanger the criminal. Edward Martone of the New Jersey ACLU said that an appeal to the state Supreme Court is certain