A federal judge in Rhode Island halted “mass terminations and restructurings” at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services resulting from the agency’s stated goal to “Make America Healthy Again.” Citing the separation of powers between the branches of government, U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose wrote Tuesday that the executive branch can’t “order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress.”
Granting a preliminary injunction to a group of blue states that sued the administration, the Biden appointee pointed to a communication from the agency in March titled “HHS Announces Transformation to Make America Healthy Again.”
Citing that announcement in her ruling, DuBose noted that the agency wanted to “substantially cut the number of employees who work for its various sub-agencies, reorganize its sub-agencies by closing some and consolidating others, reduce the number of regional offices around the country by half, and create a new division called the Administration for a Healthy America.”
Examining the agency’s explanation for its action, the judge wrote that the evidence, including various testimonies by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “has not revealed a reasoned explanation.” DuBose wrote that the government defendants “hastily restructured the sub-agencies and issued [reduction-in-force] RIF notices” instead of “undertaking an intentional and thoughtful process for weighing the benefits and drawbacks of implementing the sweeping policy change.”
She went on to write that the government defendants failed to show how mass firings and restructuring promoted efficiency, saved taxpayer money or aligned with Kennedy’s stated goal of “ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness, by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins.”
She wrote that Kennedy’s agency “failed to produce a shred of evidence that services to States and access to critical information would continue uninterrupted, that the harms are minimal or not irreparable, or that it is authorized to act absent Congressional action.” It’s the latest rebuke of the Trump administration from a district court judge. But it’s important to keep in mind that the administration could seek emergency relief at the Supreme Court, where the administration has enjoyed some success in lifting lower court orders. Indeed, there are other emergency applications currently pending at the court involving reductions in force. Ultimately, it may be the justices’ view of the separation of powers that determines whether the agency action stands. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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