A federal judge rejected the Trump administration's bid to dismiss a lawsuit by a group of states challenging U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Judge Melissa R. DuBose for the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island ruled on Tuesday that an amended complaint filed by 19 states contains "sufficient, plausible allegations" demonstrating how Health Secretary Kennedy and HHS' actions on March 27 constituted "arbitrary and capricious agency action."
"Specifically, plaintiffs allege that defendants failed to provide a reasonable basis in support of dismantling HHS and that they also failed to consider the consequences of their actions," the judge wrote in the order.
"The Court rejects defendants’ attempt to weigh in on how they believe HHS’s reorganization fulfills all existing statutory mandates and instead determines that plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that defendants’ actions have violated the Constitution," DuBose wrote.
On March 27, 2025, HHS said it would send termination notices to 10,000 employees, collapse 28 agencies into 15 and close half of the HHS’ 10 offices as part of RFK Jr.'s plan to “Make America Healthy Again," as Fierce Biotech reported.
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in early May against HHS and RFK Jr., arguing the restructurings and mass layoffs are unconstitutional and illegal, according to court documents filed May 5 in the Rhode Island U.S. district court.
“In its first three months, this administration systematically deprived HHS of the resources necessary to do its job,” reads the complaint filed by a coalition of 19 state attorneys general.
The states suing the federal health agency are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.
The judge previously granted the states' motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the changes.
Starting April 1, 2025, HHS employees were immediately expelled from their work emails and offices, leaving critical agency offices unable to perform statutory functions, according to the lawsuit, as Fierce Biotech reported.
Factories were shut down, labs stopped testing for infectious diseases and partnerships were suspended, the plaintiffs write, adding that the FDA missed a vaccine application deadline and canceled a key test for the bird flu virus.
While the layoffs hit HHS staffers of all stripes, the cuts didn’t fall evenly across the department, with the states claiming that the Trump administration targeted “disfavored work and programs," Fierce Biotech reported.
In the lawsuit, the 19 state AGs argue that the cuts at HHS and massive reorganization violated the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine and appropriations clause, constituted unlawful exercise of executive power, and violated the Administrative Procedure Act as contrary to law and as arbitrary and capricious.
The court order issued Tuesday concludes that plaintiffs have plausibly alleged an entitlement to relief, the judge wrote.