Health · Wednesday, October 7, 2026
New York joins the states suing Kennedy over the childhood vaccine schedule
The File desk · Oct 7, 2026, 10:41 AM UTC
Status
Partially confirmed. The amended complaint’s caption, court, original filing date, and Oct. 2 amended-filing stamp are on the PDF’s first page. The allegations about the schedule come from the New York attorney general’s Oct. 5 release and from the complaint’s third page, which this desk did not read past the opening. HHS’s response was not in the documents reviewed.
- Confirmed
A first amended complaint in Arizona et al. v. Kennedy, No. 3:26-cv-01609-VC, was filed Oct. 2, 2026, in the Northern District of California. The caption says the action was filed Feb. 24, 2026. New York is a named plaintiff.
- Partially confirmed
What the schedule change did, and that New York joined on the state’s account, comes from Attorney General Letitia James’s Oct. 5 release. Those are the plaintiffs’ claims.
Editor’s note: New York announced this on Oct. 5, and Tuesday’s edition missed it. Sixteen states and Pennsylvania’s governor are on a federal lawsuit against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over January’s change to the childhood vaccine schedule. New York Attorney General Letitia James said Monday that her state had joined. The states say the change skipped the expert review and public comment the law requires. They want a judge to throw out the new schedule. The case is not new. The caption says it was filed Feb. 24, 2026.
The document is a first amended complaint, Document 96, filed Oct. 2, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, case No. 3:26-cv-01609-VC, before Judge Vince Chhabria. The first page lists Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, plus Josh Shapiro in his official capacity as governor of Pennsylvania. Arizona is the lead plaintiff.
James’s release says she is joining 15 other states. The attorneys general it names alongside her are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, plus Pennsylvania’s governor. That sentence does not name Vermont. Vermont is on the complaint’s caption. This desk read the first page and the start of the third page, not the rest of the 109 pages, so it is not sorting out who joined when.
James’s office says that in the updated schedule the CDC removed vaccines against rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19, and RSV from the list recommended for every child, mostly into a category called “shared clinical decision-making.” The release also says Kennedy fired all 17 voting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June 2025. The complaint’s third page says that on Jan. 5, 2026, the CDC stripped seven childhood vaccines of a universal recommendation. Those sentences are the plaintiffs’ account.
The release calls Kennedy “among the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists” and cites figures such as 289 child flu deaths in the 2024–25 season. Those are New York’s words and numbers, not findings by this desk. HHS’s response was not in the documents reviewed.
The states say the changes were arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law, and they ask a judge to set them aside under Legal instrument This law lets a federal judge set aside an agency action found to be arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law. The states suing over the childhood vaccine schedule say the change fits that test, including a claim that required public input was skipped.5 U.S.C. § 706
What is still unknown or disputed
- Which states were on the original Feb. 24 complaint, and which joined in the Oct. 2 amendment, beyond New York’s announcement that it had joined.
- Whether a judge has ruled on anything.
- HHS’s response.
Primary sources
Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.
Source 1
Attorney General James Sues Secretary Kennedy to Protect Children from Dangerous Vaccine Rollbacks
New York State Office of the Attorney General · October 5, 2026
Now, Attorney General James is joining 15 other states in a lawsuit arguing that the new schedule ignored decades of scientific evidence, cut out the experts and public input required by law, and will leave more children sick, hospitalized, or worse.
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-sues-secretary-kennedy-protect-children-dangerous-vaccine
Source 2
First Amended Complaint, State of Arizona et al. v. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. et al., No. 3:26-cv-01609-VC
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, hosted by the New York Attorney General · October 2, 2026
Case 3:26-cv-01609-VC Document 96 Filed 10/02/26 Page 1 of 109. Action Filed: February 24, 2026.
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/arizona-et-al-v-robert-f-kennedy-jr-amended-complaint-2026.pdf
Source 3
5 U.S.C. § 706
Legal Information Institute · October 7, 2026
arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law;
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/706