By Jacob Rosen
Updated March 16, 2026
A federal judge has blocked several changes to the childhood immunization schedule advanced by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., delivering a legal setback to the administration’s effort to reshape federal vaccine policy.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Boston sided with the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups in an opinion issued Monday. The plaintiffs had sued after HHS revised the recommended childhood vaccine schedule and overhauled the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP); they argued the actions were arbitrary, capricious and unlawfully bypassed established procedures.
Months after his confirmation, Kennedy dismissed all 17 members of ACIP, the long-standing advisory panel that guides the Centers for Disease Control on vaccine schedules. The administration then appointed new members, some of whom have questioned established vaccine research, and issued a memo that cut the routine recommended vaccines from 17 to 11. Several vaccines, including hepatitis A and hepatitis B, were reclassified as primarily for children at high risk rather than recommended broadly.
Murphy enjoined the government from enforcing the memo that enacted the new schedule, froze the appointments of 13 new ACIP members and voided votes taken by the reconstituted panel. He concluded the agency had sidestepped the committee’s technical expertise, failed to follow required procedures and appointed new members without adequate vetting.
“There is a method to how these decisions historically have been made—a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements,” Murphy wrote. He also noted that, “even under the most generous reading, only six appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines.”
Public health groups warned the schedule changes could create confusion and leave children vulnerable to preventable disease. Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the ruling restores a science-based process for immunization recommendations and is a crucial step toward reinstating evidence-driven federal vaccine policy.
An HHS spokesman responded that the department “looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.” Following the ruling, HHS postponed the ACIP meeting that had been scheduled for later this week.