Published December, 2022
Suttle v New York, Amicus Brief, NY Court of Appeals, CHLP (2022)
On December 22, 2022, CHLP filed an amicus brief with the Court of Appeals, the highest court in New York State, asking the court to hear the appeal of Robert Suttle, a Black gay man living with HIV. Suttle is asking the Court of Appeals to reverse the lower court’s ruling requiring him to register as a sex offender in New York due to his conviction under draconian and discriminatory Louisiana laws.
In its filing, CHLP argues that enforcing these laws constitutes discrimination against people living with HIV -– a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and well-established public policy in New York state. Suttle’s case is emblematic of the ways in which people living with HIV are targeted for punishment for engaging in consensual conduct that not only would not be criminalized except for their HIV status but also carries no actual scientific risk of transmission.
This appeal to the highest court in New York is due to the ongoing advocacy of lead attorney Loraca Morello, attorney Richard Joselson, and the New York Legal Aid Society, as well as the tireless advocacy of Robert Suttle himself, as he tries not only to correct the injustices of his own case but to ensure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
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