RFK Jr.’s words come back to bite him in case against sweeping HHS layoffs

(CN) — A federal judge on Tuesday pressed the Trump administration on its directive to gut the manpower of the Department of Health and Human Services — a directive that many state officials say would “sabotage” the health of their residents.

In doing so, U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose scrutinized the words of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who told reporters in April that 20% of federal layoffs would have to be reinstated “because we’ll make mistakes.”

Earlier this month, 20 states sued Kennedy in Rhode Island federal court over his plan to dramatically restructure HHS by slashing its workforce by roughly 20,000 people. That initiative, revealed in March, is part of a broader initiative from President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

In more than 60 court filings, the states thoroughly outlined the harm these mass firings could cause. Research and communications about the health effects of smoking, reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases are all threatened by these cuts to staffing, the states claim.

These programs are of “enormous importance to the states,” Molly Thomas-Jensen of the New York Attorney General’s Office told a federal court on Tuesday.

“Many of the laid off employees were placed on immediate administrative leave,” Thomas-Jensen said. “Entire divisions were eliminated without justification. The result has been that there is no one to carry out the work mandated and funded by Congress.”

Arguing on behalf of the 20-state coalition, Thomas-Jensen asked the court to grant a preliminary injunction that would roll back Kennedy’s cuts to HHS staffing to preserve these programs.

“They did not plan for or otherwise consider the chaos and disruption that would inevitably accompany a mass layoff,” Thomas-Jensen added.

Trump administration attorney Elizabeth Hedges countered that Kennedy had every right to order the terminations and, contrary to Thomas-Jensen’s claims, did so carefully and pursuant to the law.

But DuBose, a Joe Biden appointee, said that Hedges and the government failed to back that claim up with evidence in their legal briefs. On the other hand, she said the states created a “robust” record of potential harm with dozens of filings, packed with detail.

Hedges replied that the HHS plans are “still being refined” and are “not fully public.” The exchange ultimately forced her to walk a thin legal tightrope — on one hand arguing that Kennedy’s plot is delicate and meticulous while simultaneously justifying the sweeping, immediate layoffs that were carried out in a matter of days.

The judge confronted Hedges with Kennedy’s own words from April 3, when he admitted that around a fifth of his ordered terminations would need to be reversed.

“How do you explain away the secretary’s own statements that these things were bound to be rife with mistakes?” DuBose asked. “How do you reconcile those things with what you’re describing as a more thoughtful plan that is in the works?”

HHS is “very, very large,” Hedges said.

“It’s not surprising that there are some road bumps,” she continued, adding that many employees have since been rehired.

It will be a crucial detail for DuBose to consider. The federal government argues that the rehirings reduce the harm suffered to the states, but the states contest that they show how arbitrary and capricious Kennedy’s directive was in the first place.

DuBose acknowledged that she is one of many federal judges around the country currently grappling with the Trump administration’s unprecedented cuts to Congressionally approved funding.

Nearly every other judge facing this issue thus far has blocked the administration from enforcing its broad spending cuts.

Last week, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled that “agencies do not have unfettered power to further a president’s agenda.”

In the states’ original May 5 lawsuit, they claim that the layoffs kneecapped the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to combat emerging threats to public health like bird flu and measles. They also argue that the cuts will hinder 9/11 first responders from receiving the federal care they’re entitled to under the Zadroga Act.

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