Judge Refuses to Halt Suit Challenging RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Changes

A federal judge declined to pause a case challenging US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to slash the number of recommended vaccines for children while the Trump administration appeals the order blocking those moves.

The order filed Friday by Judge Brian Murphy for the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts allows pending proceedings in the case to continue at that court. The US government requested the pause while it appeals Murphy’s March order blocking Kennedy’s changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.

“Defendants have not established good cause that a stay is warranted, as opposed to continuing in the usual course of litigation,” Murphy said in the order. Stays “cannot be cavalierly dispensed: there must be good cause for their issuance; they must be reasonable in duration; and the court must ensure that competing equities are weighed and balanced.”

Friday’s order doesn’t affect the current temporary block on the vaccine actions by the administration, it just allows this lawsuit challenging Kennedy’s plans to advanced at the district court level.

The Trump administration’s delayed appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, filed earlier this week, came after reports the White House moved to minimize Kennedy’s anti-vaccine positions ahead of the November midterm elections.

Bloomberg News reported that an internal memo directed officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services to downplay the department’s actions around vaccines. There was a direction to focus on more popular policies ahead of the midterms, such as drug pricing and healthy eating.

It’s been more than a month since Murphy paused Kennedy’s vaccine agenda, which included moves to no longer universally recommend childhood vaccines against Covid-19, rotavirus, flu, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, and hepatitis B.

Murphy’s decision also blocked the appointments of 13 members Kennedy selected for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel that helps determine which vaccines are covered by insurance and provided for free for some children.

The pause on Kennedy’s action has been a win for the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups who sued the secretary over the vaccine policy changes.

The case is Am. Academy of Pediatrics v. Kennedy, D. Mass., No. 1:25-cv-11916, order filed 5/1/26.