New Jersey Joins 15-State Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration's Vaccine Policy Changes

New Jersey has joined 15 other states in filing a federal lawsuit challenging what they call “radical and unlawful” vaccine policy decisions made by the Trump administration, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, targets Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s sweeping changes to federal vaccine recommendations and advisory panels. The states allege Kennedy’s approach “gambles with children’s lives and puts our communities in danger,” according to the complaint.

Attorney General Jen Davenport said Kennedy’s push to overhaul the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule “rests on fringe theories and ignores decades of science.”

“Protecting children is a priority for our office. Compare that to the Trump Administration and Secretary Kennedy, whose reckless approach to public health policy gambles with children’s lives and puts our communities in danger,” Davenport said in a statement. “RFK, Jr. replaced established experts with an unqualified vaccine panel and issued a rogue vaccine schedule that gambles with children’s health and lives.”

The lawsuit seeks to overturn two key changes Kennedy implemented. First, it challenges his appointment of 17 vaccine-skeptics to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices after he fired all existing voting members in June, according to court documents. Second, it aims to reverse new vaccine recommendations issued in early January that stripped seven childhood vaccines of their universally recommended status.

The affected vaccines include shots that protect against hepatitis, meningitis, and COVID-19, according to the lawsuit. Under the new guidance, these vaccines are now available for healthy children only after they consult with a physician, rather than being universally recommended for all healthy youth as they were previously.

A memo codifying the change described the new guidance as “not a significant departure from the current recommended immunization construct,” despite the shift from universal recommendations. The changes impact vaccine availability, distribution, and insurance coverage, according to the states’ filing.

The lawsuit also names Jay Bhattacharya, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as a defendant.

Emily Hilliard, a spokeswoman for the federal Health and Human Services Department, dismissed the legal challenge in a statement. “This is a publicity stunt dressed up as a lawsuit. By law, the health secretary has clear authority to make determinations on the CDC immunization schedule and the composition of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices,” Hilliard said. “The CDC immunization schedule reforms reflect common-sense public health policy shared by peer, developed countries.”

The lawsuit represents one of 49 legal challenges New Jersey has filed against the Trump administration during the president’s second term, according to state records. Three of these lawsuits have been filed since Gov. Mikie Sherrill took office on January 20.

New Jersey has already begun distancing itself from federal health guidance. In September, the state joined the Northeast Regional Public Health Collaborative, an informal group of more than ten states and cities formed to share scientific expertise and public health resources following changes at the CDC, according to state officials.

The collaborative emerged as the CDC, which has long served as a resource on local public health issues, underwent what public health leaders describe as massive changes under the new administration.

The states argue in their lawsuit that Kennedy’s policy changes “will make children sicker and strain state resources” by undermining established public health practices that have protected communities for decades.