US judge says HHS layoffs were likely unlawful and must be halted

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that the recent mass layoffs at the U.S. Health and Human Services were likely unlawful and ordered the Trump administration to halt plans to downsize and reorganize the nation’s health workforce.

U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose in Rhode Island granted the preliminary injunction sought by a coalition of attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit filed in early May.

DuBose said the states had shown “irreparable harm,” from the cuts and were likely to prevail in their claims that the “HHS’s action was both arbitrary and capricious as well as contrary to law.”

“The executive branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress,” DuBose wrote in a 58-page order handed down in U.S. district court of Rhode Island.

Her order blocks the Trump administration from finalizing layoffs announced in March or issuing any further firings. HHS is directed to file a status report by July 11.

The ruling applies to terminated employees in four different divisions of HHS — the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Center for Tobacco Products within the Food and Drug Administration; the Office of Head Start within the Administration for Children and Families and employees of regional offices who work on Head Start matters; and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. eliminated more than 10,000 employees in late March and consolidated 28 agencies to just 15. Combined with previous layoffs by President Donald Trump’s administration, about a quarter of the agency’s workforce has been slashed, according to the lawsuit.

The attorneys general argued that the massive restructuring was arbitrary and outside of the scope of the agency’s authority. The lawsuit also says the action decimated essential programs and pushed burdensome costs onto states.

“The intended effect … was the wholesale elimination of many HHS programs that are critical to public health and safety,” the lawsuit argued.

The cuts are part of a federal “Make America Healthy Again” directive to streamline costly agencies and reduce redundancies. Kennedy told senators at a May 14 hearing that there is “so much chaos and disorganization” at HHS.

But the restructuring has eliminated key teams that regulate food safety and drugs, as well as support a wide range of programs for tobacco, HIV prevention and maternal and infant health. Kennedy has since said that because of mistakes, 20% of people fired might be reinstated.

The states who joined the lawsuit have Democratic governors, and many of the same states — plus a few others — also sued the Trump administration over $11 billion in cuts to public health funding. A preliminary injunction was granted in that case in mid-May.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.