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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent the first year of President Donald Trump’s second administration trying to implement his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) vision. But his mission hit a roadblock during the holiday season when an Obama-appointed judge issued a ruling siding with a conglomerate of dye companies to stifle a landmark ban on artificial food additives.
During his first trip as America’s lead healthcare official in March, Kennedy spoke in Martinsburg, W.V., alongside Gov. Patrick Morrisey, who said his state’s ban plan and the Democrat scion’s choice to visit the area first shows the “MAHA” movement “begins right here in West Virginia.”
By Wednesday, a federal judge in the Mountain State, Judge Irene Berger of the Southern District of West Virginia, blocked those plans, siding with food dye manufacturers and issuing a preliminary injunction halting Charleston’s ability to enforce the policy Morrisey championed at Kennedy’s event.
Berger issued a 30-page ruling blocking enforcement of HB 2354, a law drafted by Del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Upshur, which bans food and pharmaceuticals that have been “adulterated” with artificial compounds including butylated hydroxyanisole, Red 3, Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Green 3.
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Knowingly contaminating food with such artificial dyes and compounds would have resulted in a potential misdemeanor charge and $500 fine, according to the Wheeling News-Register.
Red 3 is already banned by the FDA, in part due to lab tests on rats that found development of thyroid issues and cancerous side effects, according to NIH and HHS documents.
The case was brought by the International Association of Color Manufacturers, a K Street organization that alleged the bill causes economic harm to its member companies, that it lets Charleston “usurp” Washington’s power to regulate food safety and also interferes with interstate commerce, a federal concern.
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HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, left, WV Gov. Patrick Morrisey, right. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“The statute arbitrarily and irrationally targets color additives no U.S. agency — state or federal — nor any court has ever found to be unsafe,” IACM said in a statement announcing its suit, adding that the ban also lacks “scientific evidence.”
While Berger ruled in IACM’s favor, she also rejected their claim that the policy was an unlawful bill-of-attainder, or law singling out a person or group, according to the News-Register.
In a statement, Morrisey said he “respectfully disagree[s] with [the] ruling.”
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“[W]e believe this decision is premature and incorrectly decided. West Virginia will continue to defend its authority to protect the health and well-being of our citizens, especially children,” he said.
“We are reviewing our legal options and will continue to press forward with our efforts to get harmful crap out of our food supply.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Kennedy’s office for comment.
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In her ruling, Berger wrote that while several food additives were specifically named in the law, its use of the term “poisonous and injurious” lacked “criteria guiding its determination” — an omission that could unfairly harm dye manufacturers.
“If a parent notifies [the West Virginia Department of Health] that they believe their child is sensitive to a color additive, is that a sufficient basis for a color additive to be deemed ‘poisonous and injurious,’ or must the WVDOH conduct a further investigation? It is far from clear,” Berger said, according to West Virginia MetroNews.
She also argued that since the law has not taken effect yet, it will not harm Charleston’s ability to regulate public health and safety.
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Republicans slammed the ruling, with Del. David Elliott Pritt of Thurmond faulting “Big Food” for challenging the law in the first place.
“Imagine being so addicted to profit that you would go to court to fight for your company’s ability to willingly and knowingly continue to poison the kids of this state and nation because you refuse to alter your formulas,” Pritt said, calling that viewpoint “pretty evil.”
Some in the private sector have heeded Kennedy’s warnings about the dangers of food additives, with Walmart planning to remove synthetic dyes and some artificial sweeteners and fats from its generic store brands in the U.S. by January, according to Fortune.
West Virginia House Health and Human Resources Committee Chairman Evan Worrell, R-Huntington, told MetroNews that the law was never about politics but protecting children from “unnecessary chemical additives” that are already banned in other countries.
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During his Martinsburg appearance, Kennedy said that the increasing epidemic of social loneliness and “dispossession,” as well as the “crises we have in mental health, in suicide, in ADD, ADHD” are all linked.
“And [linked] particularly to the dyes. It’s very clear the dyes that Governor Morrisey is banning … are linked in very strong studies to ADHD and to cancers.”
California, Virginia, Utah and Arizona have since sought to enact similar bans largely focused on school lunches.
