On May 5, 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha co-led a coalition of 20 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s unconstitutional dismantling of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Since taking office, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Trump administration have fired thousands of federal health workers, shuttered life-saving programs, and abandoned states to face mounting health crises without federal support.

On March 27, Secretary Kennedy revealed a dramatic restructuring of HHS that would collapse 28 agencies into 15, with many surviving offices shuffled or split apart. He also announced mass firings, slashing the department’s headcount from 85,000 to 65,000. On April 1, 10,000 employees were locked out of their work emails, laptops, and offices without warning. In a matter of hours, critical HHS operations ground to a halt. Experiments were abandoned, trainings canceled, site visits postponed, and labs shuttered.

The coalition argued that Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration have robbed HHS of the resources necessary to effectively serve the American people and asked the court to halt the dismantling before even more lives are put at risk. The coalition alleged that the Trump administration has violated hundreds of laws, bypassed congressional authority, and trampled the constitutional separation of powers, ignoring laws that Congress enacted to protect public health and taking reckless action without regard for the consequences. Secretary Kennedy even publicly acknowledged he rejected a case-by-case review of terminations, saying he feared it would cost “political momentum.”

On July 1, 2025, the coalition secured a preliminary injunction blocking HHS and all other named defendants from taking any actions to implement or enforce the planned job cuts or sub-agency restructuring announced in the March 27 directive or set in motion after its release. On August 13, 2025, the court clarified which specific CDC and HHS offices the order applied to.

This administration is not streamlining the federal government; they are sabotaging it and all of us. When you fire the scientists who research infectious diseases, silence the doctors who care for pregnant patients, and shut down the programs that help firefighters and miners breathe or children thrive, you are not making America healthy – you are putting countless lives at risk. Attorney General Tish James