SHERIDAN, WYOMING – July 8, 2025 – A coalition of major U.S. medical societies has filed a federal lawsuit against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., challenging his directive to remove COVID-19 vaccines from routine immunization schedules for healthy children and pregnant women.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, responds to Kennedy’s May announcement eliminating these groups from federal COVID-19 vaccine guidelines. The plaintiffs—among them the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America—are seeking immediate legal intervention to reverse the decision.
Medical organizations cite danger to vulnerable populations
The complaint describes the directive as a “baseless and uninformed policy decision,” asserting it “immediately exposes these vulnerable populations to a serious illness with potentially irreversible long-term effects.” The lawsuit further argues that the directive undermines decades of science-based policy: Kennedy’s changing the COVID-19 vaccine guidelines is “but one example” of his “agenda to dismantle the longstanding, Congressionally-authorized, science- and evidence-based vaccine infrastructure.”
The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the directive unlawful and halt its enforcement. As stated in the complaint: “The Secretary’s dismantling of the vaccine infrastructure must end, and halting this effort begins with vacating the Directive.”
Top federal officials also named in suit
In addition to Kennedy, the lawsuit names FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya as co-defendants. Both appeared alongside Kennedy during the official May announcement of the new recommendations.
The medical societies are seeking a court injunction to prevent all three officials from enforcing the contested recommendations. The complaint explicitly calls for the court to declare Kennedy’s directive an “abuse of discretion.”
Part of broader legal pushback against HHS overhaul
This lawsuit joins a growing series of legal actions aimed at Kennedy’s broader changes to HHS policy and structure. Just last month, seven fired department employees sued the Secretary, alleging their terminations were based on “error-ridden” information.
Additionally, 19 states and the District of Columbia recently won a court challenge halting mass layoffs at the agency. That complaint argued that Kennedy had “systematically deprived HHS of resources necessary to do its job.” In siding with the plaintiffs, the court ruled: “The executive branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress.”
In a related ruling, a Massachusetts judge last month also struck down Kennedy’s mass termination of NIH research grants. The judge wrote that the Trump administration’s cutting of research funding for certain research programs is not only “arbitrary and capricious,” but also a clear example of “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community.”
A pivotal moment for U.S. public health leadership
The outcome of the suit may shape not only federal vaccine strategy but also the broader limits of executive authority in public health governance. With the plaintiffs demanding reversal of Kennedy’s directive and immediate court oversight, the legal battle marks a critical flashpoint in the ongoing national debate over science, policy, and the role of government in health protection.
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