New Jersey joins 15 states in lawsuit challenging changes to federal childhood vaccine schedule
TRENTON, N.J. — Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport on Tuesday announced that New Jersey has joined a coalition of 15 states in filing a lawsuit challenging changes to the nation’s childhood immunization schedule made under U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The lawsuit challenges a Jan. 5, 2026, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Decision Memo” that removed seven vaccines — including those protecting against rotavirus, meningitis, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus — from the list of universally recommended childhood immunizations. The complaint also contests the replacement of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, alleging the panel was reconstituted in violation of federal law.
Named as defendants are Kennedy; Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya; and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC.
According to the complaint, Kennedy in June 2025 dismissed all 17 ACIP voting members and appointed new members whom the lawsuit alleges do not meet the scientific and professional qualifications required under the committee’s charter and the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
In December 2025, the reconstituted panel voted to eliminate the recommendation for a universal hepatitis B vaccine dose at birth, a policy that had been in place for nearly 30 years. Shortly afterward, then-Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill signed the January 2026 memo revising the childhood immunization schedule.
State officials argue the changes were not supported by new scientific evidence or a recommendation from a lawfully constituted advisory committee.
“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. RFK, Jr., replaced established experts with an unqualified vaccine panel and issued a rogue vaccine schedule that gambles with children’s health and lives,” Davenport said. “This radical and unlawful overhaul of the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule rests on fringe theories and ignores decades of science. I will continue to protect New Jersey families from these senseless attacks on science and their children’s health.”
Acting Health Commissioner Raynard E. Washington also criticized the federal changes.
“Public trust in vaccines is built on transparency, stability, and evidence-based clinical guidance. But that trust is fragile,” Washington said. “As someone who’s spent a career working to build that trust, it’s indefensible that our federal health institutions are now undermining it. These reckless vaccine policies not only hurt public trust; they will lead to preventable suffering and death. New Jersey will continue to follow scientific and medical consensus and challenge actions that threaten the health of our state.”
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the revised immunization schedule and the ACIP appointments unlawful and to block implementation of the changes.
New Jersey’s immunization requirements and guidance remain unchanged, state officials said.
In addition to New Jersey, the lawsuit includes the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, as well as the governor of Pennsylvania.
