U.S. v. Ebanks, 29 M.J. 926 (A.F.C.M.R. 1989)

This 1989 U.S. Air Force Court of Military Review decision affirmed an Air Force member's three convictions for willful disobedience of a "safe-sex" order, which required him to disclose his HIV status and to wear condoms with sexual partners. The appellant allegedly had unprotected sex or sex without disclosing his status with another Air Force member, as well as two others who were wives of Air Force members. After entering a pretrial agreement and pleading guilty during court-martial proceedings, he appealed, arguing that he did not freely enter into the pretrial agreement in his case and that the safe-sex order unlawfully intruded on his "personal rights."

The court reviewed the record of trial and rejected the claim that the safe-sex order was unlawful, primarily on the grounds that the issue had been waived by failure to raise it before entering pleas, and that in any event it was a lawful order because it had the valid military purpose of "prevent[ing] the spread of a deadly, contagious disease and by doing so safeguard[ed] the health of members of the Air Force to insure their ability to perform Air Force missions." The court also found no evidence of ineffective assistance of counsel or that appellant was in any way pressured into pleading guilty or entering into the pretrial agreement.