A federal judge in Boston blocked changes to U.S. vaccine policies championed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dealing a major setback to the Trump administration’s effort to overhaul the nation’s immunization guidance.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy put a hold on decisions made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), finding that Kennedy had improperly replaced the entire committee. The ruling stops the appointments of 13 members installed by Kennedy since June 2025, when previous members were dismissed.
The lawsuit was brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other leading health organizations; infectious disease experts across the country also praised the decision. “Today’s ruling is a historic and welcome outcome for children, communities, and pediatricians everywhere,” said Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the pediatric academy.
The judge concluded that Kennedy and his reconstituted committee acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, abandoning a long-standing scientific process used to develop vaccine policy. In his opinion, the government “disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.”
The ACIP under the new membership had issued several contentious recommendations, including proposals affecting newborn hepatitis B vaccination and plans to reduce the number of federally recommended childhood vaccines. Because of the ruling, a scheduled ACIP meeting that was to address COVID-19 vaccines and potential changes to how federal vaccine policies are set was postponed.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, Andrew Nixon, said the administration intends to appeal. “HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing,” Nixon wrote in an email to NPR. Administration lawyers had argued the changes reflected different interpretations of vaccine data.
Richard Hughes, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, called the ruling “a significant victory for public health, evidence-based medicine, the rule of law, and the American people.”
