New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced today announced she has joined a coalition of 15 states in suing the Trump administration over what she described as a sweeping and unlawful overhaul of the nation’s childhood immunization schedule.

Davenport said the lawsuit challenges a January 5, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Decision Memo” that removed seven vaccines, including those for hepatitis A and B, meningitis, rotavirus, influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, from the CDC’s list of universally recommended childhood immunizations.

The complaint also challenges Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s June 2025 dismissal of all 17 voting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, and their replacement with what the states call unqualified appointees.

The lawsuit names Kennedy, Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya, the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services as defendants.

Davenport, who was confirmed to her role earlier this afternoon by the New Jersey state Senate, said the administration’s actions depart from decades of science-based vaccine policy and undermine public trust.

“Protecting children is a priority for our office,” Davenport said in a statement. She accused Kennedy of replacing established experts with an unqualified vaccine panel and issuing a “rogue vaccine schedule” that “gambles with children’s health and lives.”

Acting New Jersey Health Commissioner Raynard Washington said the federal changes threaten to erode confidence built on “transparency, stability, and evidence-based clinical guidance.” He said the state would continue to follow scientific and medical consensus.

The states argue that routine childhood vaccinations have prevented widespread illness and death. Researchers have estimated that among children born in the United States between 1994 and 2023, routine immunizations prevented roughly 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and more than 1.1 million deaths, generating an estimated $2.7 trillion in societal savings.

According to the complaint, the reconstituted ACIP reversed nearly 30 years of CDC policy in December 2025 by eliminating the recommendation for a universal hepatitis B vaccine dose at birth. That vaccine is up to 90% effective in preventing perinatal infection when given within 24 hours of birth, the states said.

The January decision memo later demoted seven vaccines from the universal childhood schedule to a lesser status, a move the states say was not based on new scientific evidence or recommendations from a lawfully constituted advisory committee.

New Jersey officials said the state’s immunization requirements and guidance remain unchanged. However, they argued that the federal shift could lower vaccination rates, increase infectious disease outbreaks and strain state Medicaid programs and public health resources.

The coalition is asking the court to declare the revised immunization schedule and the ACIP appointments unlawful and to block and vacate both actions.

In addition to New Jersey, the lawsuit includes the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, as well as the governor of Pennsylvania.