A judge shot down RFK Jr.’s vaccine overhaul. The fight is far from over
Key parts of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial vaccine overhaul were blocked on Monday by a federal judge in Massachusetts.
In a 45-page ruling, Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee, ruled that Kennedy’s decision to limit the number of vaccines children receive from 17 to 11, along with no longer recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, was done improperly.
Murphy said that in bypassing the independent vaccine advisory board, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Kennedy had not followed procedure.
“There is a method to how these decisions historically have been made — a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements,” Murphy wrote. “Unfortunately, the government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.”
Murphy also retroactively blocked the appointments of 13 members to ACIP after Kennedy fired their predecessors, temporarily negating the decisions made by those members. He wrote that only six of the 15 panelists could be said to have “any meaningful experience in vaccines.”
“This procedural failure highlights the very reasons why procedures exist and raises a substantial likelihood that the newly appointed ACIP fails to comport with governing law,” Murphy wrote.
The decision came just days before a key ACIP meeting was to take place. An HHS official told Salon that the meeting has been postponed following the voiding of Kennedy’s ACIP appointments.
“This procedural failure highlights the very reasons why procedures exist and raises a substantial likelihood that the newly appointed ACIP fails to comport with governing law.”
The Trump administration is expected to appeal the decision. “We look forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing,” HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon wrote on X. When asked for comment, the HHS directed Salon to Nixon’s statement.
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., criticized the decision in a post on X, comparing the ruling to Biden-era “racial gender policies.”
“Progressive district court judges claim RFK’s vaccine policies aren’t based on science yet had no problem with Biden’s radical gender policies,” Banks wrote. “Seems like they’re the ones not following the science!”
Reactions from proponents of the Make America Health Again movement were muted, with many influencers and activists remaining quiet about the ruling. At the time of writing, Kennedy himself has yet to release any statement on the matter.
Isaac Belfer, a lawyer for the Trump administration, argued earlier this month that Kennedy has “broad, unreviewable authority” in his ability to make national vaccine policies. In his ruling, Murphy shot this notion down. “The court disagrees,” he wrote.
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Dr. Tina Hartert, co-chair of the American Thoracic Society’s Vaccine Advisory Committee, criticized the credentials of Kennedy’s ACIP, which includes noted vaccine skeptics. She said their decision-making is “just as reckless as letting a group of amateur pilots dictate how our airplanes should fly.”
“The stakes in both scenarios are life and death. The medical and scientific backlash against this hasn’t changed anything,” Hartert said in a statement to Salon. Hartert called for a “critical legal defense to protect the health of our nation.”
Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the ruling was a “welcome outcome for children, communities and pediatricians everywhere.”
“This decision…represents a critical step to restoring scientific decision-making to federal vaccine policy that has kept children healthy for years,” Racine said in a statement on Monday.
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For Kennedy’s critics in Washington, the ruling was vindication. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., a member of the Senate Committee on Health, called Kennedy’s overhaul “a dangerous vaccine schedule.”
“Today a federal judge proved it. Vaccine policy must be guided by science,” Alsobrooks wrote on X.
Other senators chimed in, with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saying the decision was “a win for science,” and calling Kennedy “a stain on public health.” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also a member of the Senate Health Committee, accused the secretary of creating policies based on “conspiracy theories and dangerous misinformation.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the ruling “offers a temporary reprieve from the madness,” but worried that “the damage has already been done.”
RFK Jr’s changes to our nation’s childhood vaccine schedule fly in the face of science and threaten the lives of kids nationwide. This ruling offers a temporary reprieve from the madness, but I’m afraid the damage has already been done. https://t.co/lP8FUWVaHd
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) March 16, 2026
Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, an affordable health care nonprofit, echoed Durbin’s concerns in a statement shared with Salon.
“It’s clear the Trump administration is determined to resuscitate their agenda in a higher court because they care more about their anti-science agenda than keeping kids healthy,” Woodhouse said.
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