The Department of Justice is appealing a ruling by a federal judge which stalled many of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to federal vaccine policy.
The appeal, filed Wednesday, is the latest twist in the closely watched lawsuit filed by the American Association of Pediatrics along with several other professional organizations and several anonymous women. The organizations argued that in reconstituting a federal vaccine advisory committee and changing the childhood vaccine schedule, Kennedy’s health department violated the Administrative Procedures Act, which governs how federal agencies consider and implement policy changes.
In March, federal judge Brian E. Murphy issued a preliminary ruling that those moves were likely illegal, and that Kennedy’s reconstitution of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices violated the government’s own policies and documents laying out requisite expertise for members.
The Department of Justice’s appeal is brief, and does not outline the government’s arguments on which it is appealing the ruling. “Please take notice that Defendants hereby appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit from this Court’s March 16, 2026, Memorandum and Order on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction, ECF No. 291,” it reads.
After the story was published, an NIH spokesperson responded that “all applications undergo rigorous peer review, and funding decisions reflect those results along with program priorities.” They did not respond to questions regarding the decrease in NOFOs.
Richard Hughes, a lawyer at Epstein Becker Green who is representing AAP, said he is “disappointed” that the government filed a notice of appeal. “I have remained optimistic that [the government] would not want to relitigate issues on which it is bound to lose. We will, in due course, respond to the government’s appeal and we expect to prevail,” he said in a statement.
It previously wasn’t clear whether the health department would appeal Murphy’s decision, given reports that the White House has been steering Kennedy and other officials away from focusing on vaccines.
But the appeal does follow a change to ACIP’s charter, which altered the kinds of expertise deemed important to the committee. That charter, revised earlier this month, added toxicology, pediatric neurodevelopment, and knowledge about “recovery from serious vaccine injuries” as types of expertise that would be relevant to the committee. That charter also added several organizations that will serve as liaison members that share some of Kennedy’s views on vaccines.
After it was revised, some experts pointed out that the updated charter seemed to respond to some of the arguments levied at Kennedy in the AAP lawsuit. Following the revisions to the charter, at least one group is making that argument. Several physicians and the Children’s Health Defense, a vaccine-skeptical group founded by Kennedy that has petitioned the court to enter the case, submitted an appeal arguing that the new charter changed the course of the trial.
“Under the renewed charter, every ACIP member this Court found unqualified or arguably qualified satisfies at least one listed expertise,” CHD wrote in its appeal. (The DOJ has opposed Children’s Health Defense’s motion to enter the suit, and the court has not allowed them to join the case.)
It’s unclear how the government’s appeal may scramble the lawsuit’s timeline.
This story has been updated.
