Tonight in Your Rights: Healthcare gutted by Congress — and protected in court

On the same day the Senate passed the budget bill, a federal judge blocked RFK Jr. from purging public health agencies.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Our legal roundup “Tonight in Your Rights” focuses on the stories that you may have missed on especially heavy news nights. Unlock the full coverage by becoming a paid subscriber.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. cannot follow through on his plan to dismantle broad swaths of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — because he has no power to “decimate the Congressionally created sub-agencies,” a federal judge found on Tuesday.

The decision came down on the same day that the Senate narrowly passed a budget bill that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will knock nearly 12 million people off their healthcare. According to The Hill, GOP Senate leaders wooed fence-sitters like Sen. Lisa Murkowski by promising to supplement billions in Medicaid funds to Alaska and four other states. The revised bill will return to the House for final approval.

Before the vote-a-rama, Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” communiqué represented a different threat to the healthcare of millions.

On March 27, Kennedy purged 10,000 Health and Human Services (HHS) workers without warning. His cuts devastated divisions involved in disease monitoring, the Head Start program, and determining eligibility for food stamps, Medicaid, and housing assistance, ultimately winnowing down 28 agencies into 15.

U.S. District Judge Melissa R. DuBose, from the District of Rhode Island, found that the 20-state coalition that sued Kennedy proved the results would have been “catastrophic.”

“In the court’s view, the states have substantiated that HHS is already unable to fulfill many of its statutory functions in light of the communiqué,” DuBose wrote in a 58-page order. “Given that the communiqué is for all intent and purpose dismantling critical, statutorily mandated functions of the agency, this court finds that it is contrary to law.”

Below the paywall:

More on the judge’s ruling against Kennedy, a new lawsuit to protect the Affordable Care Act, a Georgetown University scholar’s victory against the Trump administration, and more.