A Federal Judge Just Called Out RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaccine Panel on Their Bullshit

In a searing rebuke of the ill-advised trust that has been placed in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to guide the nation’s general approach toward health, medicine and healthcare as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, a federal judge on Monday reversed the attempted decisions on vaccine policy made by RFK Jr.’s own hand-picked squad of pseudoscientific flunkies. Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. district court in Massachusetts, in a lawsuit brought by six medical organizations, delivered a ruling that effectively called Kennedy’s panelists for the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (A.C.I.P.) illegitimate, ruling that they could not arbitrarily decide to change the country’s recommended vaccine schedule for children while bypassing the science-based practice and process that the committee has traditionally used. The decision essentially reinstates–for now, anyway–the prior existing childhood vaccine schedule that is issued as the federal government’s official recommendation to states, a document that carries enormous weight in how it ultimately influences the immunization requirements for places like daycares and elementary schools.

The lawsuit brought against the federal government had argued that Kennedy’s panel of yes-men, which he formed after firing all 17 previous members after taking office, could not be trusted to make decisions regarding vaccines, and lacked the qualifications to do so, calling the changes already made or recommended “arbitrary and capricious.” Judge Murphy seemingly agreed, saying that the vaccine committee had historically made decisions via rigorous review of scientific evidence, “a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements,” but in this new iteration, “unfortunately, the government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.” This is what it sounds like when a judge is calling your position bullshit in the most precise legal way possible. He humorously added that of the 15 panelists, only six “appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines–the very focus of A.C.I.P.” What, are we claiming that being experienced with vaccines should be a prerequisite to regulating them now? SINCE WHEN???

Nice. #GoScience #GoSanity

📣 Judge Strikes Down Kennedy’s Vaccine Policies www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/h…

Court: RFK Jr "made arbitrary & capricious changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, bypassing the careful, evidence-based practice…"

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— Timothy Caulfield (@caulfieldtim.bsky.social) Mar 16, 2026 at 4:47 PM

The Trump administration, meanwhile, immediately went into proclamations of bravado and confidence in response, with HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon proclaiming that “HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.” The federal government’s lawyer, Isaac Belfer, had earlier in the case attempted to claim that the committee’s decisions were completely “unreviewable,” even if they were to recommend that people become purposefully infected with measles instead of getting the vaccine.

To reiterate, this is an actual exchange that happened in court in this case, in which the government argued that it should be able to tell you to catch measles on purpose:

“Is it your position that it’s totally unreviewable?” Murphy asked Justice Department lawyer Isaac Belfer. “If the secretary said instead of getting a vaccine to prevent measles, I think you should get a shot that gives you measles. Is that unreviewable?”

Belfer confirmed it’s the government’s view that courts can’t second-guess Kennedy’s policy discretion.

“If the secretary were to say, under my judgment herd immunity is the best way, that would be unreviewable.”

Wow, I can’t believe that the judge wasn’t swayed by that argument. In response, he said the following: “Suffice it to say that the Court disagrees.”

Since assembling his Justice League-style panel of medical luddites, the RFK Jr. coalition has worked to roll back vaccine science pretty much everywhere it could, with one member saying that the polio vaccine should be optional, and another claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine was deadly. The panelists had subsequently rescinded several recommendations for childhood vaccines, including no longer recommending that newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B, a disease that causes severe liver damage. The lawsuit was ultimately filed in July by a group of medical orgs, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, after RFK Jr. himself announced that COVID-19 vaccines would no longer be recommended for children or pregnant women. The organizations issuing the lawsuit asked only that the court restore the previous childhood vaccination schedule, predating RFK Jr.’s meddling.

This is RFK, Jr.'s MAHA Institute's recent meeting in D.C.

Slide presentation titles:
“The Polio Fraud” and “The flu shot has given 1,900,000 Americans Alzheimer’s,” and “VACCINES ARE GREATEST SCAM IN MEDICAL HISTORY.” (capitals, theirs)

www.notus.org/health-scien…

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— Jan Kirsch, M.D., M.P.H. (@drjanicekirsch.bsky.social) Mar 10, 2026 at 11:23 PM

The judge’s decision, meanwhile, “effectively means that a science-based process for developing immunization recommendations is not to be trifled with and represents a critical step to restoring scientific decision-making to federal vaccine policy that has kept children healthy for years,” according to a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday.

Nor would Judge Murphy allow the Trump administration to sidestep the task of the A.C.I.P. entirely, which is what it tried to do in January when Kennedy’s hand-picked CDC acting director Jim O’Neill (who has since stepped down) simply announced a new schedule of childhood vaccines that would have reduced the total number of diseases against which children receive protection from 17 to 11. Morbidly, the administration cited a public loss of trust in vaccines (that it fostered) as its reasoning, arguing that by decreasing the number of vaccines it recommended, the public would somehow have more faith in vaccines. Sure, that makes sense. But yet again, despite the CDC decision bypassing the A.C.I.P.’s review process entirely, Judge Murphy wasn’t having it.

“It is undisputed that Director O’Neill issued the January 2026 Memo without sufficiently consulting A.C.I.P.,” Murphy wrote in his ruling. “Therefore, he lacked authority to issue the January 2026 Memo and, in so doing, acted contrary to law. The C.D.C. cannot simply bypass A.C.I.P. in altering the immunization schedules.”

The decision is certain to be appealed, but for the time being, at least, conservatives will have to face down their nightmare scenario: Young children receiving medicine that prevents them from getting sick with debilitating diseases. Oh, the horror.