Trump Admin Instantly Blocked from Unleashing Disaster

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3:58Michael Popok:We got some breaking news in favor of American and children not dying. We've got a federal judge, Judge Murphy, in Massachusetts, who has put up the big stop sign against RFK Jr. and his whole band of merry anti-vaxxers, which make up his committee related to advisory opinions about which vaccines children should take. Judge Murphy has said, no, you're not going to fire 17 experts on vaccines and immunology. replace them with a whole group of people who have no background or expertise in that particular science, and then tell American doctors and pediatricians to remove at least six vaccines from the recommended list, including meningitis, vaccines against rotavirus, influenza, hepatitis A and B, and COVID-19.

4:52Michael Popok:It's a good day when we're not allowing children to get meningitis. And what Judge Murphy found is that RFK Jr., that notorious anti-vaxxer, that non-scientist, he's barely a lawyer, an environmental lawyer at that. He doesn't get to undermine public health. Even the White House is concerned about RFK Jr. They're trying to rein him in. Remember, at the start of the administration, Donald Trump effectively turned over all of public health over to RFK Jr. and said he could run wild. Well, how's that going? Not great with the largest measles outbreak in the country. Let me read to you from Judge Murphy's order and get down to it here on the Midas Touch Network while you're here.

5:38Michael Popok:Take a minute. Come over to Legal AF YouTube channel, won't you? And hit the free subscribe button. Following this case very closely, since it was filed back in the summer of 2025 and updated in September of 2025, just in January of this year, after he fired the entirety of the 17-member panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and don't be fooled by the advisory part, It is a congressional statutory mandated stakeholder in the decision making about children's health. And to RFK Jr., it was just an unnecessary guardrail around his crazy anti-vax theories. And so he fired them all and replaced them with many people, while don't be fooled by the doctor in their title, are not doctors related to anything concerning vaccines or immunology or anything like that.

6:34Michael Popok:And that was called out by Judge Murphy as well. Who can forget when the gravelly-voiced RFK Jr. during one of his many oversight committee hearings had this exchange about his advisory committee and other lies. In fact, let me play back-to-back clips. Simply trying to say that the people that you have put on that panel after firing the entire... You're fading the question. No, I'm asking the questions here, Mr. Kennedy. You're evading that question. I'm asking the questions, Mr. Kennedy. I ask your question. I'm asking the questions for Mr. Kennedy on behalf of parents and schools and teachers all over the United States of America who deserve so much better than your leadership.

7:23That's what this conversation is about, Mr. Chairman. Senator, they deserve the truth, and that's what we're going to give them for the first time. in the history of that agency. Can you tell the head of the CDC that if she refused to sign off on your changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that she had to resign? No, I told her that she had to resign because I asked her, are you a trustworthy person? And she said no. So I'm sorry, but this is not what she has said publicly. She has said... Well, I'm not surprised about that. So you're saying she's lying? Yes. Every conversation I had with her, there were witnesses.

8:05And let me get this straight. This is the same person that less than a month earlier, you stood next to her and described her as unimpeachable, and you had full confidence in her, and that you had full confidence in her scientific credentials. And in a month, she became a liar? Yeah, you should ask her what changed. And by the way, a month ago you were voting against her. Oh, because you thought she was either incompetent, ineligible, or unsuited to the task. I went against her because I was afraid she was going to bend the knee to you and Donald Trump. And it looks like she didn't bend the knee, so you fired her.

8:46Are you telling us that the former head of CDC went to you, you asked her, are you a trustworthy person, and she said, no, I am not a trustworthy person? She didn't say, no, I'm not a trustworthy person. She said, no. Wow. I'm having a quote. And you're also repeating now that she is a liar, correct? What you wrote in the Wall Street Journal. She wrote that I fired her because she refused to sign on in advance for the ACIP committee. No, that's not accurate. All right. You're calling her a liar. And I look forward to her coming before the HELP committee, maybe this committee as well.

9:24Michael Popok:Now, here's what Judge Murphy, a Biden appointee, had to say in a case brought by, thank God, the American Academy of Pediatrics against RFK Jr. and the Department of Health and Human Services. Like I said at the start of the hot take, I thought he was going to start with She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby. But he started with Carl Sagan. First line of his order, science is far from a perfect instrument of knowledge. History is littered with once universal truths that now come under scrutiny, and nevertheless, science is still the best we have. And that's his starting point for his order.

10:03Michael Popok:He talks about the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices formed by Congress in 1964. 4. Congress has recognized the importance of and value of having such independent experts, the judge writes on page 2, involved in setting our national public health agenda by cementing the committee's role in the Center for Disease Control's issuance of immunization schedules, determining which vaccines are available. Unfortunately, the judge says on page 3, the government has disregarded those methods and undermined the integrity of its actions. the government has removed all duly appointed members of the committee and replaced them without undertaking any of the rigorous screening that had been the hallmark of selection for decades and they've abandoned technical knowledge and expertise embodied by the committee the judge pointed it out by an exchange that he was particularly struck by during a hearing in which the lawyer for the Department of Health and Human Services said this in response to a question from the judge.

11:13Michael Popok:Their main argument was, it's all discretion, and judges can't provide any oversight over what the agency does about what they think is healthy or not healthy, what they think should or shouldn't be a vaccine for a child. It's all unreviewable. See, that's the little dirty lie that the Trump administration always begins all of its motions with, that judges have no role in providing any oversight, even when you're talking about something simple like statutory interpretation. See, you have a statute which is created by Congress, the executive branch, in this case, the Department of Health and Human Services needs to execute on that statute.

11:52Michael Popok:And according to the government, if there is a gap or a variance between what the statute says and what the agency action is, well, that's just too bad. It's just discretionary. I'm Michael Popok, and I got some big news for our audience. Most of you know me as the co-founder of Midas Touches Legal AF and the Legal AF YouTube channel, or as a 35-year national trial lawyer. Now building a what we started together on Legal AF, I've launched a new law firm, the Popok Firm, dedicated to obtaining justice through compassionate and zealous legal representation. At the Popok Firm, we are focused on obtaining justice for those who have been injured or damaged by a life-altering event by securing the highest dollar recoveries.

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13:38Michael Popok:And if we determine that you have a case and you sign with us, we don't get paid unless you do. The Popoc Firm, fighting for your justice every step of the way. Which is, by the way, it is completely against a United States Supreme Court decision that the Trump administration promoted in which they struck down the Chevron doctrine. See, Chevron was a doctrine back in the 70s in which they gave to the agencies a lot of discretion when it came to their own expertise, saying that they were better suited than judges to make decisions about these narrow areas of science or technology. So environmental protection, you're better at it than judges.

14:21Michael Popok:You figure out what's good for clean air and clean water. While the Supreme Court and John Roberts, the chief justice in particular said, no, that's abdicating the responsibility of the judicial branch. It is the judicial branch, they said in the ruling which overturned Chevron. It is the judicial branch that must interpret even highly technical statutes. Okay, then why is the government still taking the position that agency action and discretion is unreviewable by courts? It's against the law, literally. So the judge says, let me test this theory of yours that it's unreviewable, because that's what judges do.

14:58Michael Popok:We look at statutes and see if the executive branch is compliant with those statutes in promoting or effectuating the goals of the statutes or not. That's the judicial branch in our three tripartite branches of government, right? Our system of government. The court says this struck him on page 19. Let's say that instead of revising the vaccine schedule, that the Center for Disease Control said, we think measles are good for you. You should have measles lunches. We should schedule measles lunches all in every city. And we're pro-communicable disease. That would seem to go right up against the goal of preventing those diseases in the statute.

15:40Michael Popok:Would it not, sir? Would such a policy by the CDC be judicially reviewable? Could a court make a declaration about it? And I love the commitment here to the position, even in the face of having to answer the question this way. The lawyer for the Center for Disease Control said, I think it's agency discretion, Your Honor. And the court said, so even if what the agency is saying is we like communicable diseases, we think we should have more of them. That's not judicially reviewable. No. Suffice it to say, the court said, the court disagrees and would be unlikely to find much difficulty, for example, in assessing whether the secretary's theoretical endorsement of getting a communicable disease like measles could be reasonably calculated to, quote, advance the prevention and suppression of communicable diseases under the statute.

16:31Michael Popok:That's what judges do. They interpret the statute. Then he took on the qualifications, and I use that term lightly, of the new members of the panel, this Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the ACIP committee, which is at the heart of immunization recommendations. And this new committee, after the 17 experts got fired by RFK Jr., how convenient, he put in a bunch of people, many of which are anti-vaxxers like him, who don't believe in many of the vaccines. They say, well, we consulted with Germany and Japan and best practices in other countries. We're supposed to be one of the leading countries on health care.

17:15Michael Popok:We know we're not. But we're one of the leading, especially on immunology, starting in the 60s. And we're now consulting with other countries. I thought other countries were bad. I thought America first, but not apparently when it comes to health care. This is probably one of the reasons that the Trump administration is trying to reel back in JFK, RFK Jr. So this panel that eliminated hepatitis A and B, influenza, rotavirus, and meningitis and COVID from the list of recommended vaccines is comprised of the following. Here's what they say. Here's what the judge says on page 29. Of the 15 members of the panel, I guess he couldn't find 17, even under the most generous readings, only six appeared to have any meaningful experience in vaccines.

18:03Michael Popok:So nine out of the 15 are just quacks when it comes to vaccines. You know, he says, and that's the very focus of the committee. He said the statute requires that they have the expertise in vaccines. He says six of the ACIP members, Dr. Hillary Blackburn, Dr. Griffin, Dr. Hillbeln, Dr. Milbone, Dr. Pagano, Dr. Pollack, lack any expertise or professional qualifications related to vaccines or immunization. An additional three, Dr. Levy, Dr. Malone, and Dr. Stein, although they have this information, he's effectively saying they're effectively anti-vaxxers. So no, the judge rules on preliminary injunction that they're more likely to prevail, that the public health issue and the impact of public health is so great and the likelihood of success on the case so great that he's going to block it.

19:02Michael Popok:Now, this is going to go up on appeal to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Massachusetts and Boston. It's going to end up at the United States Supreme Court. This is going to be an interesting test for the Supreme Court, as I said earlier, because in one of their decisions where they overturned this agency discretion standard, they said it's for judges to review, not for the agency's expertise to be completely deferred to, to be given agency discretion, it's called. So I think right there, the court says we can review. Now, the question is whether on this particular health topic, they're going to defer to the non-scientist anti-vaxxer RFK Jr.

19:44Michael Popok:and his merry band of anti-vaxxers on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or they're going to let a judge determine that no, things that were done here in the execution of the law were improper and illegal. Sometimes they side with Donald Trump when it comes to immigration, migration, war powers, and the like. Sometimes they don't when it comes to aspects of the economy, like tariffs. They side with Trump when he's protecting Christian values or rights. They don't side with him when it comes to other things that have to do with due process, you know, constitutional due process issues.

20:29Michael Popok:So we'll have to see where this one falls. I would hope it would fall in favor of protecting America and that these issues are too important. The protection of our children, the most fragile group in our society, is too important to leave it to the crass politics and insane ramblings of RFK Jr., but we'll have to see. We'll continue to follow it. They may take that case up this year before they're done on an emergency application or otherwise, and we will cover it on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. In the meantime, I'm Michael Popak. Until my next report. Can't get your fill of Legal AF?

21:05Michael Popok:Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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