Mass layoffs and reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stalled out in federal court, as a Rhode Island federal judge sided with a coalition of 19 state attorneys general against subagencies Tuesday.
Filed in early May, the Democratic attorneys general argued recent actions signed off upon by HHS leadership were unconstitutional and illegal, reported Fierce Biotech. The judge agreed, granting a preliminary injunction to halt the changes. The government must file a status report by July 11.
“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,” said U.S. District Judge Melissa Dubose, concluding her decision.
Defendants included Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, Ph.D., and FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, M.D. Plaintiffs asked the judge to stop terminations at the CDC, the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, regional Head Start offices and at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
States told the judge “some gaps cannot be filled” by closed laboratories at the CDC that help contain public health threats. Another program, the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System—collecting data on pregnancy, delivery and postpartum patients—has been unable to collect data since March 27. Historical data from 1988 to 2023 are no long available from the CDC.
The attorneys general also alleged the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products was no longer completing compliance checks to ensure the products aren’t sold to minors and that the CDC’s work on HIV, hepatitis, STD and tuberculosis prevention has been halted as well.
“The states are unable to access previously available funds, guidance, research, screenings, compliance oversight, data, and, importantly, the expertise and guidance on which they have long relied,” the lawsuit reads, later adding the HHS does not dispute harms raised by plaintiffs.
April 1, the HHS began enacting the administration’s plans to terminate 10,000 employees, consolidating offices and ending programs. Trump’s proposed budget also realizes the HHS’ goal to create a new Administration for a Healthy America, which would include some displaced offices.
This lawsuit is one of many faced by the Trump administration in the health sphere. Probationary workers, the first federal employees to be fired, faced setbacks in winning back their job titles earlier this year from the Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
States did win a preliminary injunction against the HHS’ block of $11 billion in grants designed to counter public health threats and pandemic preparedness, among other use cases.