Fed up judge deals MAJOR BLOW to RFK Jr. in court

A federal judge issued a ruling that struck down RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine policies, specifically halting his efforts to remove critical vaccines from the childhood vaccine schedule. This represents a major loss for RFK Jr. and a win for public health.

Adam Classfeld states, 'What happened is that a federal judge struck down RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine policies and found that the ideologues that he stacked in his committee to give advice on vaccines were not properly appointed. So he had stopped all of their recommendations. He stopped RFK Junior's attempts to take off critical vaccines from the childhood vaccine schedule.'

The judge explicitly rejected the government's argument that RFK Jr.'s actions, even if extreme (e.g., promoting measles), would be unreviewable by any court. This upholds the principle of judicial review over executive agency discretion.

Judge Murphy posed hypotheticals, asking if a CDC policy promoting measles lunches would be judicially reviewable, to which the government lawyer essentially said no. The judge's ruling directly counters this, as Classfeld notes it's 'a rejection of government's long-standing claim that RFK Jr.'s actions aren't reviewable by any court.'

The judge's ruling was founded on the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which prevents arbitrary and capricious government actions. RFK Jr. violated this by purging qualified members from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and stacking it with ideologues who lacked meaningful experience in vaccines.

Classfeld explains, 'The foundation of the judge's ruling was not only the science, it was the law. He was talking about the Administrative Procedures Act, which safeguards against arbitrary and capricious government actions.' He adds that Judge Murphy noted 'Of the 15 members currently on ASIP, even under the most generous reading, only six appear to have meaningful experience in vaccines, the very focus of ASIP.'