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Lawyers for U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today asked a federal appeals court to allow a key federal vaccine advisory committee to return to work.
During oral arguments in an ongoing lawsuit filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) against Kennedy and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the government’s lawyers asked the court to overturn a ruling handed down in March by U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy.
The March ruling blocked changes Kennedy made to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and paused several changes Kennedy and HHS made to federal vaccine policy, including the childhood immunization schedule.
“We’re asking the court to vacate the order on the [ACIP] appointments, so that the Secretary can reconstitute the committee and get it back to work,” Matthew Zorn, deputy general counsel for HHS, told the court.
“The practical matter of this case is, the Secretary wants to get the ACIP back to work, and we’re being told that if he reconstitutes any committee, it’s gonna be right back in court,” Zorn said.
Attorneys for the AAP told the court they would like the stay to remain in place, arguing the committee as constituted by Kennedy violates federal law. They argued that they have legal standing because representatives from groups including the AAP served on ACIP liaison committees.
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg said it is “frustrating” that a private organization is attempting to obstruct federal vaccine policy.
“We hope that the 1st Circuit recognizes that the District Court should not have enjoined the Secretary here and that an organization such as the AAP, which is deeply conflicted in the area of vaccines, should not be given such a controlling role over federal vaccination policy,” Mack Rosenberg said.
No ruling was issued today.
AAP, other medical groups launched lawsuit last year
The AAP and six other medical groups sued Kennedy and HHS last year in a bid to overturn changes that reduced the number of diseases routinely recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and restructured ACIP’s membership.
In February, the AAP and other medical groups sought an emergency injunction to pause the changes.
The March ruling stayed the changes and also froze ACIP’s operations. ACIP has not held a meeting since December 2025.
In April, the federal government appealed the March ruling, leading to today’s hearing before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.
CHD has sought to intervene in the AAP’s lawsuit, arguing that neither side has addressed the safety of the CDC’s recommended schedule. Motions by the AAP and federal government to dismiss CHD’s attempted intervention are pending.
In January, CHD and five other plaintiffs sued the AAP, accusing it of running a decades-long racketeering scheme to defraud the public about the safety of the routine childhood vaccines that were long part of the CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule. That lawsuit remains pending.
The AAP — the nation’s largest pediatric trade group, with 67,000 members — receives funding from several vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer, Moderna, Merck and Sanofi.
New York joins other states in lawsuit against RFK Jr., HHS
Today’s hearing came just days after New York joined other states in a similar lawsuit against Kennedy and HHS, seeking to nullify the federal government’s vaccine policy changes.
In February, the attorneys general of 14 states and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sued Kennedy, HHS and other federal agencies, challenging changes made to ACIP and to the CDC’s recommended schedule — and the CDC’s decision to no longer recommend a birth dose of the hepatitis B (Hep B) vaccine.
CHD CEO Mary Holland told The Defender in February that the claims the states made in their lawsuit are “essentially the same” as those made by AAP.
Trump administration attorneys asked the court to dismiss the suit, but a federal court ruled last month that the case may proceed on most of its claims.
However, in his five-page decision last month, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled against the states’ attempt to overturn Kennedy’s ACIP appointments, finding that the states lack legal standing to challenge those selections.
The states argued that their laws are aligned with ACIP’s recommendations and that they were harmed by recommendations made by an unlawfully constituted ACIP.
But Chhabria rejected this argument, stating, “ACIP recommendations at issue do not impact the States by operation of federal law until they are adopted by the CDC.”
In his ruling, Chhabria expressed skepticism that the states would be able to prove legal standing to challenge Kennedy’s ACIP appointments.
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States’ allegations of future harm ‘extremely weak,’ legal expert says
Last month’s ruling found the states do have standing to challenge changes to the vaccine schedule because they “plausibly alleged that those decisions will likely increase the cost of operating state healthcare programs and impose administrative burdens associated with adjusting state laws.”
The ruling gave the states 21 days to file an amended complaint addressing the portions of the case that were dismissed, resulting in last week’s filing.
Legal experts told The Defender that most changes in the amended complaint filed last week are not substantive. Perhaps the most significant change is that the attorneys general of New York and Vermont have since joined the lawsuit, bringing the number of state attorneys general to 16.
In a statement released Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James said the “abrupt” changes made to the childhood schedule and federal vaccine recommendations “put children’s health at risk.”
Mack Rosenberg noted that state vaccine policies often are not fully aligned with CDC and ACIP recommendations.
“Many of the states are not — and have not been long before Kennedy took office — in complete accord with the ACIP recommendations. As a result, the allegations of future harm are extremely weak. Allegations that they are somehow forced by the ACIP appointments to take certain actions ring hollow,” Mack Rosenberg said.
Related articles in The Defender
- States Can Sue RFK Jr. Over Vaccine Schedule Changes — But Not Over Changes to Vaccine Advisory Panel
- Publicity Stunt Dressed Up as a Lawsuit’: 15 States Sue HHS Over New Vaccine Guidance
- Breaking: Federal Court Blocks ACIP Meeting, Changes to Childhood Vaccine Schedule
- Federal Government Appeals Ruling in AAP Lawsuit that Struck Down RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policies
- Breaking: Children’s Health Defense Hits AAP With RICO Suit Over Fraudulent Vaccine Safety Claims
- Breaking: Children’s Health Defense Seeks to Intervene in High-Stakes Vaccine Lawsuit
