Judge strikes down RFK Jr. vaccine guidelines in blow to Trump’s health care agenda
A heavy blow Addressing the Trump administration’s health care agenda, a federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked the government from implementing a series of vaccine decisions made last year by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The ruling also reversed, at least for now, all decisions made by Mr. Kennedy’s appointed panel members to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations about which vaccines Americans should take. The court decision prevents the committee from meeting as planned later this week.
The judge’s ruling brought an abrupt halt to major changes that Mr. Kennedy, long skeptical of vaccines, had initiated by upending national vaccination policy and making sweeping changes to recommendations about which shots are given and when. These included reducing the number of diseases covered by routine vaccinations and restricting access to Covid vaccines, two pillars of Mr Kennedy’s vaccination agenda.
In his decision, Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts noted that the Vaccine Committee has historically made its decisions based on a careful review of scientific evidence, “a method of a scientific nature anchored in the law by procedural requirements.” But he added: “Unfortunately, the government has disregarded these methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.”
The ruling by Judge Murphy, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Joseph Biden, a Democrat, will almost certainly be appealed. Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said: “HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned, just like his other attempts to stop the Trump administration from governing.”
Judge Murphy made the ruling in a lawsuit filed by six medical organizations alleging that Mr. Kennedy and his appointees made “arbitrary and capricious” changes to the childhood immunization schedule, bypassing the careful, evidence-based practices that have guided recommendations in the past.
The lawsuit also argued that the panelists appointed by Mr. Kennedy were not qualified to recommend vaccinations and that their decisions endangered the health of Americans.
In his decision, Judge Murphy wrote that only six of the 15 panelists “appear to have significant experience with vaccines – the real focus of ACIP.”
For their part, lawyers for the federal government had argued that changes to the vaccination plan represented reasonable differences of opinion over health policy. They noted that states — not the vaccine committee or the federal government — have ultimate authority over which vaccines are required.
In a hearing this month, Isaac Belfer, a lawyer for the Trump administration, argued that Mr. Kennedy and the committee had “unverifiable” – or absolute – authority to set vaccination guidelines, even if that included recommending that people become infected with measles rather than get vaccinated.
Judge Murphy clearly rejected this argument. “Suffice it to say the court disagrees,” he said.
The decision was the clearest result yet in an escalating battle between the medical establishment and the Department of Health and Human Services, which under Kennedy has embraced anti-vaccination conspiracies, including debunked theories that vaccines cause autism, asthma or other diseases in children.
“This is a significant victory for public health, evidence-based medicine, the rule of law and the American people,” Richard Hughes, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told reporters after the court made its decision.
The government could appeal the decision, Mr. Hughes noted, “but for now we can enjoy some rare good news.”
The decisions of the vaccination committee have a major impact on the states’ vaccination requirements for entry into daycare centers and elementary schools and shape the insurance coverage of vaccinations.
The panel was originally scheduled to meet in February, but the Department of Health did not file required federal notices for the meeting and postponed the meeting.
The lawsuit was filed in July by medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics after Mr. Kennedy announced on social media that Covid vaccines would no longer be recommended for healthy children or pregnant women.
The medical organizations had asked the court to restore the vaccination schedule from a year ago, before Mr. Kennedy began the change.
The goal is to “stop dangerous vaccination policies and bring science back into our nation’s vaccine decisions,” said Mark Del Monte, executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The Pediatric Academy praised the court’s decision on Monday, saying it “effectively means that a science-based process for developing vaccination recommendations is not to be trifled with and represents a critical step toward restoring the scientific decision-making in federal immunization policy that has kept children healthy for years.”
The lawsuit focused on a series of changes Mr. Kennedy and his associates made over the last year. In June, Mr. Kennedy fired all 17 existing members of the vaccine committee and selected new panelists, most of whom shared his skepticism about vaccines and regulations.
In three sessions since then, panelists have withdrawn several recommendations for childhood vaccinations, including vaccinating all newborns against hepatitis B, a highly contagious virus that can severely damage the liver.
Separately, in January, Jim O’Neill, whom Kennedy had appointed as acting director of the CDC, announced a new childhood vaccination schedule that lifted recommendations for some vaccines, effectively reducing the number of diseases against which children are routinely vaccinated from 17 to 11.
Mr. O’Neill and other federal officials said distrust of vaccines had led to declining vaccination rates and argued that the accelerated timeline would restore public trust. The vaccinations removed from the routine schedule would still be available after consultation with a doctor.
When revising the schedule, the vaccination panel was completely bypassed. Changes to the vaccination schedule are typically made by the immunization committee after careful consideration of the benefits and potential risks, a process that can take months or years, Dr. Giridhar Mallya, a senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which advocates for universal health coverage.
“We cannot say the same about the changes that were made to the vaccination schedule just last year,” said Dr. Mallya.
After the lawsuit was filed last summer, it expanded to include additional vaccine developments, with medical organizations asking the court to throw out the schedule changes. The lawsuit also gained supporters: An amicus brief representing more than 100 public health experts and organizations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was filed in February.
“We really view vaccines, particularly childhood vaccines, as the true crown jewels of public health in this country,” Dr. Mallya. “It is of great concern to us to see a series of drastic, arbitrary and ill-founded changes to these recommendations.”
Judge Murphy seemed to agree with that assessment.
“It is undisputed that Director O’Neill issued the January 2026 memo without adequately consulting ACIP,” he wrote in his decision. “Therefore, he lacked the authority to issue the January 2026 memo and thereby acted in violation of the law.”
“The CDC cannot simply circumvent ACIP by changing vaccination schedules,” he added.
Many of Mr Kennedy’s appointees are doctors, but unlike previous panel members, they have little or no expertise in vaccines or immunology.
Last month, vaccine panel chairman Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, suggested that all childhood vaccinations, including those against polio and measles, should be optional because the diseases no longer pose the dangers they once did – a position most health experts immediately denounced as dangerous.
Other committee members have suggested, contrary to the scientific consensus, that Covid vaccinations are deadly and should be withdrawn from the market.
Allowing panelists to make decisions about vaccines is “as reckless as letting a group of amateur pilots dictate how our planes should fly,” Dr. Tina Hartert, co-chair of the American Thoracic Society Vaccine Advisory Committee. “In both scenarios it is a matter of life and death,” said Dr. Hartert. The Thorax Society joined the amicus brief.
“The medical and scientific opposition to this has not changed anything, so I think a decisive legal defense is really needed to protect the health of our nation,” she added.
The Academy of Pediatrics and many other organizations, including the American Medical Association, have come together to provide the public with information and evidence that would normally be provided by the Vaccine Panel and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Last month, the Academy of Pediatrics released its own new vaccination schedule, which largely mirrors the previous CDC vaccination schedule. Most medical associations, states and insurance companies have also committed to sticking to the current schedule.
“We would prefer to cooperate with federal health authorities rather than appear in court to challenge their actions,” said Mr. Del Monte, the executive director of the pediatric academy.
