First Circuit urged to unblock RJK Jr MAHA vaccine policy makeover

The Trump administration asked the First Circuit on Tuesday to reverse an injunction that froze Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s overhaul of childhood vaccine policy, arguing medical groups lacked standing because there was no reviewable final agency action to challenge. A district judge had found in March that the administration disregarded established methods and damaged the CDC advisory committee's integrity, after Kennedy fired sitting members, appointed new ones, and stripped recommendations for hepatitis B, rotavirus, Covid-19 and other childhood vaccines.

Government attorney Matthew Zorn told the panel there was essentially nothing concrete to enjoin, just appointments. Plaintiffs' attorney Andrew Pincus pointed instead to Kennedy's own June 2025 Wall Street Journal op-ed, in which Kennedy outlined his plan to overhaul the advisory committee and accused its 17 sitting members of conflicts of interest and being a rubber stamp for vaccine makers.

The panel, which included judges appointed by Trump, Obama and Bush, did not indicate when or how it would rule. Meanwhile the policy changes themselves, including demoting several vaccines to case-by-case recommendations, remain stayed under the original injunction.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.