WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court On Monday, an anti-vaccine group founded by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy rejected two Covid-related appeals by Children’s Health Protection.
The judges’ decision not to hear the cases upholds lower court decisions against the group.
One case challenged the Food and Drug Administration’s December 2020 emergency authorization of Covid-19 vaccines, and another was filed against Rutgers University in New Jersey over the Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
In the FDA case, the group argued in court filings that the Covid vaccines “are not effective and have not been adequately tested.” The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that Kennedy’s group did not have standing to sue.
In the Rutgers dispute, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia held that the plaintiffs had “failed to state a reasonable claim for any relief.”
Kennedy himself took a leave of absence from the group he created in April 2023 to run for president. He was unsuccessful in the Democratic Party primaries and is now running as an independent candidate.
On the campaign trail, he largely downplayed his anti-vaccine activism, but in November He spoke at the Children’s Health Protection conference.
Kennedy is listed as an attorney at Rutgers who appealed to the Supreme Court, even though he left the group.
In a separate vaccine case, the court also rejected a challenge to Connecticut’s decision to strike down a religious exemption for school vaccinations.