It
was
mere
days
ago
that
we
were discussing an
interesting
lawsuit
brought
by
the
American
Academy
of
Pediatrics,
among
others,
challenging
RFK
Jr.
and
HHS
for
violating
the
Administrative
Procedures
Act
in
making
changes
to
the
CDC’s
ACIP
panel
and
immunization
schedules.
If
you’re
not
up
on
what
the
APA
is
and
does,
the
text
of
the
law
reads:
To
the
extent
necessary
to
decision
and
when
presented,
the
reviewing
court
shall
decide
all
relevant
questions
of
law,
interpret
constitutional
and
statutory
provisions,
and
determine
the
meaning
or
applicability
of
the
terms
of
an
agency
action.
The
reviewing
court
shall-
(1)
compel
agency
action
unlawfully
withheld
or
unreasonably
delayed;
and
(2)
hold
unlawful
and
set
aside
agency
action,
findings,
and
conclusions
found
to
be-
(A)
arbitrary,
capricious,
an
abuse
of
discretion,
or
otherwise
not
in
accordance
with
law;
(B)
contrary
to
constitutional
right,
power,
privilege,
or
immunity;
(C)
in
excess
of
statutory
jurisdiction,
authority,
or
limitations,
or
short
of
statutory
right;
(D)
without
observance
of
procedure
required
by
law;
(E)
unsupported
by
substantial
evidence
in
a
case
subject
to sections
556
and
557
of
this
title or
otherwise
reviewed
on
the
record
of
an
agency
hearing
provided
by
statute;
or
(F)
unwarranted
by
the
facts
to
the
extent
that
the
facts
are
subject
to
trial
de
novo
by
the
reviewing
court.
In
other
words,
the
law
outlines
how
actions
brought
by
federal
agencies
must
follow
certain
established
procedures
and
be
based
in
facts,
as
well
as
how
upon
challenge
the
courts
could
review
and
enforce
those
requirements
on
said
agencies.
Remarkably,
in
that
same
case,
the
DOJ
argued
to
the
court
that
Kennedy’s
actions
were
“unreviewable”.
At
one
point,
Judge
Murphy
asked
the
DOJ
if
that
meant
that
Kennedy
could
advise
the
public
to
get
a
shot
to get measles,
instead
of
preventing
it,
without
review
or
challenge.
The
DOJ
somehow
answered
that
question
in
the
affirmative.
It
was
all
very
stupid
on
the
part
of
this
particular
government,
but
stupid
appears
to
be
the
only
thing
on
the
menu
these
days.
But
it
turns
out
that
the
actions
of
Kennedy
and
HHS are in
fact
reviewable,
as
evidenced
by the
preliminary
injunction
the
court
just
issued blocking
the
recent
changes
to
the
vaccination
schedule
and
put
a
stay
on
the
13
new
members
appointed
to
ACIP
by
Kennedy
last
summer.
U.S.
District
Court
Judge
Brian
Murphy
in
Boston
put
a
hold
on
the
decisions
made
by
an
influential
Centers
for
Disease
Control
and
Prevention
vaccine
advisory
committee,
ruling
that
Health
Secretary
Robert
F.
Kennedy
Jr.
had
improperly
replaced
the
entire
committee.
The
ACIP,
whose
members
Kennedy
fired
and
replaced
largely
with
new
members
who
also
criticized
vaccines,
had
issued
a
series
of
contentious
recommendations,
including
a
recommendation
that
not
all
babies
should
get
vaccinated
against
hepatitis
B
at
birth.
The
judge’s
ruling
stays
the
appointment
of
13
committee
members
appointed
by
Kennedy
since
June
2025,
when
the
previous
members
were
fired.
Several
health
NGOs,
including
the
AAP,
are
celebrating
the
ruling,
understandably.
Before
we
pop
any
champagne
bottles,
though,
the
government
has
already
said
it
plans
to
appeal
the
ruling.
This
is
lining
up
like
one
of
those
classic
whipsaw
legal
situations
where
one
court
will
rule
sanely,
the
next
will
rule
in
favor
of
executive
power,
and
then
it’ll
go
to
the
Supreme
Court
and
we’ll
all
learn
if
that
compromised
group
of
black
robes
will
just
hand
more
destructive
power
over
to
Trump
in
ignoring
a
law
it
doesn’t
like,
in
this
case
the
APA.
But
in
the
meantime,
this
is
at
least
delaying
some
of
the
damage
Kennedy
has
attempting
to
foist
on
the
American
people.
ACIP
was
set
to
meet
this
very
week
to
talk
about
how
else
to
make
us
less
safe
from
preventable
diseases,
but
that
meeting
has
now
been
postponed.
In
the
ruling
itself,
Judge
Murphy
opens
with
a
blistering
recitation
of
how
science
and
process
are
all
supposed
to
work.
“Science,”
like
law,
“is
far
from
a
perfect
instrument
of
knowledge.”
Carl
Sagan,
The
Demon-Haunted
World:
Science
as
a
Candle
in
the
Dark
29
(1997).
History
is
littered
with
once-universal
truths
that
have
since
come
under
scrutiny.
Nevertheless,
science
is
still
“the
best
we
have.”
“Procedure
is
to
law
what
scientific
method
is
to
science.”
In
re
Gault,
387
U.S.
1,
21
(1967)
(cleaned
up).
Although
sometimes
seemingly
tedious,
“the
procedural
rules
which
have
been
fashioned
from
the
generality
of
due
process
are
our
best
instruments
for
the
distillation
and
evaluation
of
essential
facts
from
the
conflicting
welter
of
data
that
life
and
our
adversary
methods
present.”
For
our
public
health,
Congress
and
the
Executive
have
built—over
decades—an
apparatus
that
marries
the
rigors
of
science
with
the
execution
and
force
of
the
United
States
government…Unfortunately,
the
Government
has
disregarded
those
methods
and
thereby
undermined
the
integrity
of
its
actions.
First,
the
Government
bypassed
ACIP
to
change
the
immunization
schedules,
which
is
both
a
technical,
procedural
failure
itself
and
a
strong
indication
of
something
more
fundamentally
problematic:
an
abandonment
of
the
technical
knowledge
and
expertise
embodied
by
that
committee.
Second,
the
Government
removed
all
duly
appointed
members
of
ACIP
and
summarily
replaced
them
without
undertaking
any
of
the
rigorous
screening
that
had
been
the
hallmark
of
ACIP
member
selection
for
decades.
Again,
this
procedural
failure
highlights
the
very
reasons
why
procedures
exist
and
raises
a
substantial
likelihood
that
the
newly
appointed
ACIP
fails
to
comport
with
governing
law.
Chef’s
kiss;
no
notes.
This
administration
doesn’t
care
much
for
law
or
procedure,
of
course,
hence
the
appeal
of
an
obviously
correct
decision.
Kennedy
all
the
moreso,
either
because
this
is
all
some
flavor
of
grift
anyway,
or
he’s
a
true-believing
zealot,
or
both.
Either
way,
this
isn’t
over.
But
finally
someone
has
drawn
first
legal
blood
on
Kennedy
and
the
chaos
he’s
created
at
his
post
when
it
comes
to
vaccinations.
U.S.
District
Court
Issues
Preliminary
Injunction
Against
RFK,
HHS
For
Its
Vaccine
Schedule
Changes
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