Judge Orders Department of Health to Restore Funding to American Academy of Pediatrics

‘This is a case about whether the federal government has exercised power in a manner designed to chill public health policy debate,’ the judge said.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Arlington, Va., on Dec. 8, 2025. Heather Diehl/Getty Images

A federal judge on Jan. 11 ordered the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to resume funding grants to a major pediatrician organization.

Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is likely to succeed in its claims that HHS violated the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment when officials cut some $12 million in grants to the academy.