(The Center Square) – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is being sued by California, New York, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and other states over what they call the dismantling of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.
Plaintiffs in the suit filed Monday against the health secretary also include Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, the suit challenges Kenney’s March 27 directive cutting about 10,000 jobs. At the time, the Health and Human Services Department said the cuts, which were in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order on the same day calling for reductions at federal agencies, would save $1.8 billion a year.
But Monday’s lawsuit says the Trump administration has stripped the department of the resources it needs to do its job.
“On April 1, 2025, when the termination notices went out and employees were immediately expelled from their work email, laptops, and offices, work across the vast and complicated Department came to a sudden halt,” according to the lawsuit. “Throughout HHS, critical offices were left unable to perform statutory functions. There was no one to answer the phone, factories went into shutdown mode, experiments were abandoned, trainings were canceled, site visits were postponed, application portals were closed, laboratories stopped testing for infectious diseases such as hepatitis, and partnerships were immediately suspended.”
“The Food and Drug Administration missed a vaccine application deadline and canceled a critical test for the bird flu virus, suspending that testing program for the year,” the complaint reads.
The coalition of states is urging the federal court to halt the mass firings, reverse what it calls the illegal reorganization, and restore critical health services, according to a news release from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
The lawsuit also protests the closing of half of the department’s 10 regional offices, including one in San Francisco, according to the California Attorney’s General Office. The office goes on to explain the lawsuit contends the cuts violated the Administrative Procedure Act, is beyond the scope of presidential power, and violates the Appropriations Clause and Separation of Powers doctrine of the U.S. Constitution.
The suit contends the health cuts were especially harsh on several federal agencies: the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Administration for Children and Family, and the Administration for Community Living. Officials from those agencies are listed as defendants in the lawsuit along with Kennedy.
The complaint goes on to say Kennedy didn’t restructure the department carefully or legally and admitted there were going to be mistakes. The secretary did say 20% of the reductions could be errors, as reported by CBS News and other media.
“The terminations and reorganizations happened quickly, but the consequences are severe, complicated and potentially irreversible,” Monday’s lawsuit reads. “Plaintiff States are already suffering consequences of these terminations and reorganizations.”
But Kennedy argued the cuts, which involve restructuring the department from 28 divisions to 15, will make government more efficient.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” he said. “This department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
