OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, along with attorneys general from nineteen other states, secured a preliminary injunction that halts Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s motion back in May to fire thousands of federal health workers and close programs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The preliminary injunction was granted by Judge Melissa R. Dubose of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
In her order, Dubose wrote that the injunction could take place because “States have shown a likelihood of success on their claims that the HHS’s action was both arbitrary and capricious as well as contrary to law” and that “the States have sufficiently shown irreparable harm,” among other reason.
The injunction blocks further implementation of Kennedy’s restructuring of the HHS and stops the termination of employees in the CDC, the Center for Tobacco Products, the Office of Head Start and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
“Congress never meant to confer HHS the power to self-destruct,” wrote Dubose.
“This ruling affirms that Secretary Kennedy can’t abruptly and unlawfully cut off crucial, congressionally mandated health services,” said Brown. “That is the very definition of arbitrary and capricious, not to mention cruel to the federal employees performing those essential services in our states, and the millions of residents relying on them.”
Brown originally joined the lawsuit against Kennedy on May 5.
