Fed up judge deals MAJOR BLOW to RFK Jr. in court

I'm joined now by AllRise News's Adam. Classfeld. Adam, we have a major update. from the hands of a federal judge who. just gave some bad news to one of Donald. Trump's more unhinged cabinet members, J- RFK Jr. Can you explain what just. happened in court? Absolutely, Brian. What happened is that. a federal judge struck down RFK Jr.'s. anti-vaccine policies and found that the. ideologues that he stacked in his. committee to give advice on vaccines. were not properly appointed. So, he had.

stopped all of their recommendations. He. stopped RFK Jr.'s attempts to take off. critical vaccines from the childhood. vaccine schedule. It's a major loss for. RFK Jr. And importantly, a rejection of. government's long-standing claim that. RFK Jr.'s actions aren't reviewable by. any court. And that's an extreme. position. I'm happy to go into that.

further. >> would love I would love for exactly. that. Okay, well, I want to read this part of. the ruling because it's incredible. You. had Judge Murphy. saying in oral arguments he was. providing some hypotheticals. You see. very often, I've been covering this beat. for two decades. And very often you have. federal judges take a party's argument. to its logical extreme. And he did that. with the government saying that RFK. Jr.'s actions could not be reviewed by. any court. And here are some of the.

hypotheticals that he gave. Judge Murphy. said, "Let's say that instead of. revising the vaccine schedule, the CDC. said, 'Actually, we think measles is. good for you. You should go have lunch. with someone with measles, and we are. sponsoring measles lunches in every. city. Come have a measles lunch.' That. would seem to go right up against the. goal of preventing communicable. diseases. Would such a policy by the. GDCD. be judicially reviewable. And the.

government essentially said, "No, it. wouldn't be reviewable." Said, "I think. that would still be committed to agency. discretion by law." The judge went. further, said, "So, even if what the. agency was saying is we like. communicable diseases and we think you. should get more of them, that's not. judicially reviewable." The government's. lawyer said, "No." And let's think about. that for a second. Think of it, you. mentioned RFK Jr. being unhinged. This. would be an unhinged RFK Jr. being.

unleashed and saying that there is no. federal court anywhere in the land who. can second-guess when he says that one. of his pet theories about the public. health should have the force of law. So, now that a judge has struck down. this effort by RFK's health agency, what. are the practical implications for. American families? Well, what it means is the public health. is being protected. Just to put this.

into perspective, I recently spoke to a. doctor in the wake of this ruling, an. emergency room physician in Michigan, and he had mentioned that the United. States is now on the brink of being off. the list of countries that have. eradicated measles. And it's not just. measles. The doctor was talking about. meningitis vaccines and outbreaks of. that. I saw that ProPublica had an. exposé on how whooping cough is now an.

issue. That long-controlled. and eradicated diseases are now part of. the national conversation. And what it. comes down to is putting confidence in. expertise again. The foundation of the. judge's ruling was not only the science, it was the law. He was talking about the. Administrative Procedures Act, which. safeguards against arbitrary and. capricious government actions. And what. we had here was RFK Jr. essentially.

nullifying and purging. a body called ACIP, the Advisory Committee on Immunization. Practices. So he purged the people who. were properly appointed to it and. stacked it with his fellow ideologues. And in another part of his ruling, Judge. Murphy said, "Of the 15 members. currently on ACIP, even under the most. generous reading, only six appear to have meaningful.

experience in vaccines, the very focus. of ACIP." So the judge is saying, "You. can't short-circuit. this procedure that was in place since. 1964. to provide sound medical advice and put. it with people who share your pet. theories.". Adam, how come this is working? And I'm. glad that it is working, but how come. this is working for Health and Human. Services, but not the Department of. Education, for example? Not the EPA, for. example? There are people in place atop.

each agency that are hostile to the very. mission of their agencies, and yet. they're allowed to act with abandon, with reckless abandon, and oftentimes. um uh destroy the very agencies that. they were tapped to lead, and there. really doesn't seem to be any. recourse for any of that. But in this. instance, where RFK is trying to. undermine the stated mission of Health. and Human Services and its corresponding. agencies, there are judges who are able. to step in and say,

"No, so long as as you're acting in a. way that's antithetical to the mission. of each agency, there is a check on. that.". Right. Well, what we're seeing is the. kind of interplay of what's happening in. the trial court level and on appeals. And I should be clear, the Trump DOJ is. going to appeal this, and we've seen. other federal judges try to take actions. with the Department of Education, for. example, and other agencies. There's. litigation right now over DOJ, and a lot.

of this litigation is under the very. statute that this case involves, the. Administrative Procedure Act, because if. there's one common theme in Trump's both. of his terms is this explosion in the. Administrative Procedure Act litigation. because he does things arbitrarily and. capriciously, by definition. It's a sort. of unilateral thing, and he stacks his. cabinet with members who act. unilaterally without notifying the.

public, without bringing in the experts, working against the experts. So, that's. why you see a lot of this litigation. A. lot of this will come down to whether. this stands up on appeal, but one of the. things that I find so important about. this ruling, and it's a 45-page ruling. here, is the principle being defended here. that. uh RFK Jr. cannot act alone without any. court oversight. If that legal theory is.

adopted, we're in deep trouble when it. comes to the public health. Well, isn't. that really what Trump is looking to do? I mean, he wants he he and his party. want unreviewable power. I mean, this is. what they tried to do with the. independent state legislature theory, which is this idea that each legislature. in each state can adopt voting rules, no. matter how insane, and they wouldn't be. uh they wouldn't be susceptible to any. check or review by the judicial branch, for example, or by the governors. So, if.

you had a state like North Carolina, for. example, with such a gerrymandered. Republican legislature that there was no. hope that any Democratic legislature. would be able to take over, but, you. know, there it Governor Roy Cooper, those people would be able to adopt. rules for the up for the subsequent. elections that would be completely. unreviewable by uh Governor Roy Cooper. or even the the Democratic uh state. Supreme Court at the time. And so, this. has been a recurring theme for this. party where they where so long as they. have their own acolytes, uh their own. hardliners in positions of power, they.

want those positions of power to be. completely unreviewable by any other. branch of government. That's absolutely. true. As a matter of fact, one theme. with the Trump uh government and the. MAGA movement more broadly is these. sweeping assertions of power. And to put. a little bit of glimmer of hope here, a. lot of these have failed pretty. substantially in court. I mean, we've. spoken about the case of Kilmar Burgos. Garcia many times. Yeah. Early on after.

Kilmar Burgos Garcia was spirited out of. the country and put in a prison in El. Salvador where he was tortured, the. Trump DOJ line was that now it's. unreviewable, now it's on out of our. hands. And that was rejected 9-0 by this. Supreme Court. And and saying that there. has to be some sort of due process not. only with Kilmar Burgos Garcia, but with. hundreds of others who were spirited out. of the country without notice or. hearing. This is an extension of that.

where we have another claim of. unreviewable authority, absolute power. if you will, where a judge is shooting. it down. And so, there are two things. that I'm looking for on appeal. One, does this ruling hold because it holding. is vital to the public health and the. ability of any Secretary of Health and. Human Services to be able to stack the. deck with their preferred ideologues.

rather than follow any procedures on. something as important as public health. recommendations. But the other thing. that I'm going to be looking forward. to uh the ruling on very closely is will. the higher courts reject this idea that. Trump's cabinet members can do whatever. they want without the federal courts. touching it because if that is a. finding, we're in real trouble. Right, because then it basically just. eliminates our system of checks and. balances. And when you have, you know,

these extremist uh these extremists in. positions of power, then then, you know, we're setting ourselves up for a pretty. uh pretty dangerous situation. Is there. any way to read the tea leaves on what. an appeals court might say on on this. matter in particular? Well, I citing the whole Kilmar Bracho. Garcia route, I find it very unlikely. that a federal court is going to rubber. stamp, even an an appellate court, given. the 9-0 nature of the Supreme Court's. ruling on Kilmar Bracho Garcia. This.

whole idea of unreviewable authority, it's something that the Trump DOJ trots. out all the time and they are always. rejected yeah on this issue. But, it. will see what happens because this. judge, Judge Brian Murphy, has had a. ruling paused on the shadow docket. before. It seems that uh Trump DOJ is. really attacking him on the basis that. prior rulings have been paused but not. fully overturned on appeal. I think that.

the courts always move slowly and. cautiously, but as I look at this. opinion, he it it is so devastating and. it really lays out the radical nature of. the power grab here and how it cuts. against the science and cuts against the. expertise that I think that Judge Murphy. took a really cautious and careful. approach to this ruling that I expect.

will stand up on appeal. Was there. anything especially striking that you. saw in this decision? Because. oftentimes, um you know, these judges. are speaking out in a way that we. haven't seen before. And so, I'm just. curious whether there was something from. the decision uh itself that you think. was especially unorthodox or unusual? It's not so much that it was unorthodox. and or unusual, but I think that Judge. Murphy puts his finger on the atmosphere. of distrust. And I thought he opened.

this ruling in a very moving way. He. quoted Carl Sagan. And I'm going to read. from the introduction. Said, "Science, like law, is far from a perfect. instrument of knowledge. History is. littered with once universal truths that. have since come under scrutiny. Nevertheless, science is still the best. that we have." And he's stressing the. vaccine skepticism that is all over. social media. But, he goes and connects. that to the law. And he says a little.

bit later, "For public health, Congress. and the executive have built over. decades an apparatus that marries the. rigors of science with the execution and. force of the United States government. One extraordinary product of that. apparatus has been the eradication and. reduction of certain communicable. diseases through the development and use. of vaccines." And I thought it was just. a powerful way of laying it out there. That we have, since 1964, come up with a. system that married the law and science.

that benefited from things like we don't. have to think about measles unless. someone mucks up the system. Yeah. And I. think that he really spoke to something. in our culture the the really spoke to. and addressed the real distrust in many. institutions, whether it's science and. the law, and saying, "Look what we have. accomplished with that. And look what we. risk if we throw it all away. Look, as.

there continues to be a lot of distrust. thrown at institutions, one. one space where I think it's it's a. little bit well deserved is the media. space, the legacy media space. And we. have seen a number of institutions and. formerly trusted outlets. basically capitulate to Trump and show. that it was more worth it to. side with and kowtow to. a despot as opposed to staying true to. their own stated values. We're seeing. the extent to which the Washington Post.

and CBS News and ABC in so many. different instances thought it was more. important to to cozy up to Donald Trump. And so a small step that I would ask. everybody watching right now to take is. to support independent journalism, fearless independent journalism. And. nobody does it better than Adam. So I'm. going to put the link to All Rise News. right here on the screen and also in the. post description of this video. Adam is. not owned by some major media. conglomerate. It's him. He is doing this. work by making sure to to pay his own. way and go all around the country. wherever these cases are happening. And.

he has built a brand that is trusted if. nothing else. So I'm going to put again. that link right here on the screen and. also in the post description. If you're. not yet signed up and you want to show. some support for independent media, especially at a time where we need it, please make sure to subscribe. Adam, as. always, thanks so much for your time. Thank you so much, Brian. Always a. pleasure.