This op-ed was originally published by Inside Sources.
The “Make America Healthy Again” report bills itself as a call to boost children’s health. Beneath the surface, however, it reads more like a litigation guide for lawyers eager to target food manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and other companies under the guise of public health.
Let’s be clear: improving children’s health is crucial, and the Department of Health and Human Services is the appropriate regulatory agency to address public health challenges. However, improvements must be based on sound science, and the MAHA report, riddled with ill-cited and questionable claims, may ultimately be weaponized by lawyers as a roadmap to target industries.
A key segment of the report is a broad condemnation of “ultra-processed foods” — a vague term with no consensus definition in the scientific community. As Sarah Gallo of the Consumer Brands Association notes, “There is currently no agreed-upon scientific definition” of the term. The MAHA Commission attempts to offer a broad definition, but its ambiguous framing of ultra-processed foods creates fertile ground for litigation based more on narrative than real evidence.
That legal utility may be by design, spoon-feeding a primary target to the mass tort industry.
Coincidentally or not, Morgan & Morgan, the nation’s largest personal injury firm, filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit this year in Philadelphia. Recently named the worst Judicial Hellhole in the country by the American Tort Reform Foundation, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas is plaintiff-friendly and was selected as the venue for this suit. The case alleges that major food manufacturers designed and marketed “ultra-processed foods” in a way that is addictive to children and responsible for rising rates of chronic disease.
HHS secretary and MAHA Commission chair Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s previous ties to Morgan & Morgan raise even more red flags. Kennedy worked for Morgan & Morgan until 2022, and he remains involved in contingency-fee litigation alongside other prominent plaintiff firms. According to federal ethics filings, he received just under $9 million in legal fees and maintains financial interests in mass tort cases, including lawsuits against manufacturers of Roundup and the Gardasil vaccine.
These conflicts raise serious questions about whether health policy under Kennedy will be guided by science or steered by profit-driven litigation shake-down strategies.
We frequently see in these “Judicial Hellholes” how lawyers exploit ambiguous claims in friendly courts to drive policy through the courtroom. The MAHA report, whether intentional or not, equips them with new material.
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