The position was offered during a court hearing.
Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. in Washington on Jan. 16, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s authority to change federal vaccine policy is not reviewable by the courts, a Trump administration lawyer said on March 4.
Department of Justice lawyer Isaac Belfer urged U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy during a court hearing in Boston to rule that Kennedy and other health officials have unfettered, unreviewable authority to change vaccine guidance.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups have sued the government, seeking to enjoin changes such as a new, looser childhood vaccine schedule.
“What they want this court to do is supervise vaccine policy indefinitely,” Belfer said during the hearing, Reuters reported.
Murphy then asked whether the government’s position is that the authority is “totally unreviewable,” posing a hypothetical.
“If the secretary said instead of getting a shot to prevent measles, I think you should get a shot that gives you measles, is that unreviewable?” he asked.
“Yes,” Belfer replied.
The updated childhood schedule retained the previous recommendation for measles vaccination. Children are still advised to receive two doses of the shot.
In a recent court filing, the government pointed to a federal law that gives the health secretary authority to “assist States and their political subdivisions in the prevention and suppression of communicable diseases” and “advise the several States on matters relating to the preservation and improvement of the public health.”
Other statutes and regulations outlining how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and vaccine advisory panel can or must deal with vaccine policy changes “do not constrain the Secretary’s broad and unreviewable discretion,” government attorneys stated.
Plaintiffs in the case, some of which are partners with vaccine companies, have argued that officials violated those procedures on multiple occasions, including when they bypassed the vaccine advisory committee in January when issuing the updated schedule for children.
That was one of “a series of unlawful final agency actions that have abruptly and unlawfully altered the nation’s vaccine policy,” they said in a motion for an injunction that would roll back the changes as the case proceeds.
The panel was remade in 2025 by Kennedy, who replaced all members.
James Oh, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told Murphy that without an injunction, the panel would meet as scheduled later in March and go over COVID-19 vaccine injuries instead of addressing the measles outbreaks happening in the United States.
“That is [a] recipe for spreading distrust and dare I say misinformation or disinformation about vaccines,” Oh said, according to Reuters.
Murphy, who previously rejected the Trump administration’s effort to dismiss the case, said he would issue a ruling before the meeting.