The article provides background on and analysis of the statute and regulations developed to implement the statute by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In interpreting the statute as it relates to AIDS victims, the U.S. Department of Justice concluded in 1986 that Congress did not intend the Act to protect those suffering from communicable diseases such as AIDS. The Justice Department memorandum also concluded that while a full-blown AIDS infection was a handicap, lesser degrees of the illness required individual scrutiny to determine if they were handicapping. The Justice Department memorandum also argued that a person with AIDS would probably not be otherwise qualified and therefore could be justifiably denied employment. However, in School Board of Nassau County v. Arline, the U.S. Supreme Court held that one who has a debilitating disease that is communicable is handicapped under the Federal Rehabilitation Act. A case relating AIDS to the Act is Thomas v. Atascadero Unified School District, in which a child infected with HIV was held to be handicapped under the Act. 208 footnotes.