Kennedy's Vaccine Overhaul on Trial: First Circuit Weighs the ACIP Freeze While a 16-State Coalition Sues to Restore the Childhood Schedule

Kennedy's Vaccine Overhaul on Trial: First Circuit Weighs the ACIP Freeze While a 16-State Coalition Sues to Restore the Childhood Schedule

Updated October 12, 2026. The legal resistance to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine overhaul is now running on two tracks, and both moved this week.

Track 1 — the ACIP purge and schedule injunction (AAP et al. v. Kennedy, D. Mass. → 1st Cir.). Judge Brian Murphy's March 16, 2026 order found Kennedy violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act when he replaced all 17 ACIP members, picking "distinctly unqualified" individuals; the order blocked 13 appointees from serving, blocked the CDC's January 5, 2026 move cutting routinely recommended childhood vaccinations, and set aside ACIP votes taken under Kennedy's watch — including downgrading hepatitis B shots for newborns and COVID-19 shots broadly. The administration appealed only the appointee block. At the First Circuit oral argument October 6, DOJ attorney Matthew Zorn said the order has left ACIP unable to meet:

"We're asking the court to vacate the order on the appointments so that the secretary can reconstitute the committee and get it back to work."

ACIP has canceled two meetings since Murphy's ruling, and its next — October 21–23 — "would likely also be canceled if the committee is not reconstituted before then." The panel seemed divided: Chief Judge David Barron said of the appointee block, "It's hard to know precisely what harm this relief was designed to address."

Track 2 — the states' APA suit. On October 5, New York AG Letitia James announced NY joined a coalition of 15 other states (AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ME, MD, MI, MN, NJ, NM, OR, RI, WI) plus Pennsylvania's governor suing Kennedy and HHS to restore the childhood schedule¹. The suit challenges the January schedule change — which dropped universal childhood recommendations for rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19 and RSV, mostly moving them to "shared clinical decision-making" — as arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, and asks the court to throw out Kennedy's ACIP appointments and reverse the panel's December 2025 vote ending the hepatitis B birth-dose recommendation (in place since 1991). James:

"Every parent wants their child to grow up healthy and protected from preventable diseases. For decades, these vaccines have kept millions of children out of the hospital and saved countless lives. Families deserve guidance grounded in science and these abrupt changes put children's health at risk."

Why it matters: states build school-entry requirements, insurance coverage rules, and Medicaid programs around ACIP's recommendations — New York has already passed two laws decoupling its own systems from the committee Kennedy took over. The stakes are live: the US is mid-measles resurgence (Measles: CDC Sends a "Disease Detective" and Nearly $4M to Pennsylvania — and Has Quietly Shifted Death Counting to NCHS Mortality Data), PAHO reviews US elimination status in November, and Trump's Aug 10 EO (Trump's Aug 10 Childhood-Vaccine Executive Order (18 Shots → 11, MMR Split) Draws a 31-Lawmaker Demand That CDC Director Schwartz Answer by October 16) seeks to reinstate a pared-down schedule (18→11 shots, MMR split) that the injunction blocked in its earlier January form.