A federal judge in Boston has halted changes to U.S. vaccine policy promoted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dealing a major setback to the administration’s effort to rewrite immunization guidance. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy put a hold on actions taken by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), concluding that Kennedy improperly replaced the committee in its entirety. The order pauses the appointments of 13 members Kennedy installed since June 2025 after previous members were dismissed.
The suit was filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other leading health organizations; infectious disease experts around the country also applauded 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.
Judge Murphy found that Kennedy and the reconstituted ACIP acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, abandoning a long-standing scientific process used to develop vaccine recommendations. In his opinion, the government “disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.”
Under its new membership the ACIP had issued several controversial proposals, including recommendations that would affect newborn hepatitis B vaccination and plans to reduce the number of federally recommended childhood vaccines. As a result of the ruling, a planned ACIP meeting that was to address COVID-19 vaccines and possible changes to how federal vaccine policies are established has been 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 argued the changes reflected different interpretations of vaccine data.
Richard Hughes, counsel for the plaintiffs, called the ruling “a significant victory for public health, evidence-based medicine, the rule of law, and the American people.”