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524US2

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642

BRAGDON v. ABBOTT

Opinion of the Court

need not address the second question presented,
i. e.,
whether HIV infection is a per se disability under the ADA.

B

Our holding is conﬁrmed by a consistent course of agency
interpretation before and after enactment of the ADA.
Every agency to consider the issue under the Rehabilitation
Act found statutory coverage for persons with asymptomatic
HIV. Responsibility for administering the Rehabilitation
Act was not delegated to a single agency, but we need not
pause to inquire whether this causes us to withhold defer-
ence to agency interpretations under Chevron U. S. A. Inc.
v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837,
844 (1984).
It is enough to observe that the well-reasoned
views of the agencies implementing a statute “constitute a
body of experience and informed judgment to which courts
and litigants may properly resort for guidance.” Skidmore
v. Swift & Co., 323 U. S. 134, 139–140 (1944).

One comprehensive and signiﬁcant administrative prece-
dent is a 1988 opinion issued by the Ofﬁce of Legal Counsel
of the Department of Justice (OLC) concluding that the Re-
habilitation Act “protects symptomatic and asymptomatic
HIV-infected individuals against discrimination in any cov-
ered program.” Application of Section 504 of the Rehabili-
tation Act to HIV-Infected Individuals, 12 Op. Off. Legal
Counsel 264, 264–265 (Sept. 27, 1988) (preliminary print)
(footnote omitted). Relying on a letter from Surgeon Gen-
eral C. Everett Koop stating that, “from a purely scientiﬁc
perspective, persons with HIV are clearly impaired” even
during the asymptomatic phase, OLC determined asympto-
matic HIV was a physical impairment under the Rehabilita-
tion Act because it constituted a “physiological disorder or
condition affecting the hemic and lymphatic systems.”
Id.,
at 271 (internal quotation marks omitted). OLC determined
further that asymptomatic HIV imposed a substantial limit
on the major life activity of reproduction. The opinion said: