A federal appeals court just told Johnson and Johnson and its spinoff, Kenvue, that the Tylenol autism lawsuits are not going away.
On October 16, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the companies’ request to rehear the case. That left in place a ruling from this past July, when the same court reversed a federal judge in New York and put a large number of dismissed lawsuits back on the docket. The claims allege that acetaminophen use during pregnancy raises the risk of autism and ADHD in children, and that Tylenol’s makers failed to warn mothers.
How the lawsuits got here
Lawsuits from around the country were consolidated into one proceeding in the Southern District of New York in 2022, under United States District Judge Denise Cote. In 2024, Judge Cote excluded the plaintiffs’ expert testimony on causation and dismissed the cases on that basis. Without an expert willing to testify that Tylenol causes autism, the plaintiffs had no way to prove it to a jury.
What the lawsuits allege
The underlying claims are product liability and failure to warn claims. Plaintiffs allege that Johnson and Johnson, and later Kenvue after its spinoff, knew or should have known of studies suggesting a link between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and neurodevelopmental conditions, and that the companies did not put a warning on the label. The companies deny the claims and maintain that acetaminophen remains safe when used as directed. Both sides retained scientific experts, and the fight over which experts a jury gets to hear is what sent this case to the Second Circuit in the first place.
What the Second Circuit did
The Second Circuit disagreed with how the district court handled that exclusion. In July, the panel reversed the dismissal and sent the cases back to Judge Cote for further pretrial proceedings. Johnson and Johnson and Kenvue then asked the full appeals court to rehear the matter. On October 16, the court said no, in a brief order that gave no explanation.
The written order was not public as this post went up, so the panel’s full reasoning is not yet available. What legal press covering the litigation reports is that the cases now return to Judge Cote, who may choose a small number of cases to serve as bellwether trials. These are early test cases that give both sides a read on how a jury will treat the evidence before the full group of cases moves forward. A bellwether verdict does not bind every other plaintiff, but it tends to shape settlement talks for everyone else.
What this ruling does not mean
No court has found that Tylenol causes autism or ADHD. The ruling means the plaintiffs get another chance to put their experts and their evidence in front of a jury. Whether acetaminophen taken during pregnancy actually raises the risk of autism or ADHD is still the central, unresolved question in the case.
The Food and Drug Administration said in September 2025 that it planned to update acetaminophen’s warning label to address a possible link. A planned label change is a regulatory decision, not a scientific finding, and it is not a court ruling that the drug caused any particular child’s condition.
Why Treasure Coast families should pay attention
This ruling came out of a courthouse in New York, but the mothers who took Tylenol during pregnancy are not clustered in one state. Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Palm Beach County parents took the same over the counter medication millions of other mothers took, often on a doctor’s own advice, because for decades acetaminophen was considered the safe choice during pregnancy when other pain relievers were not. If your child was later diagnosed with autism or ADHD, and you used acetaminophen regularly or in high doses while pregnant, this litigation may eventually affect whether you have a claim worth looking into.
What to do now
The litigation is still early. Causation has not been proven to a jury, the Second Circuit’s written reasoning is not yet public, and no one can tell you today what a Tylenol autism claim would be worth or whether you have one. What you can do now is hold on to the medical records from the pregnancy and from the diagnosis, write down how often and how much acetaminophen you used, and talk to a lawyer before you assume the window has closed or that there is nothing here to look into.
We are following this litigation and will update this post once the Second Circuit’s written order is public and Judge Cote sets a schedule for the cases going back to her. A reversal and a denied rehearing are procedural wins for the plaintiffs, not a verdict and not a settlement. Treat this post as a status update, not a signal that any claim is ready to file or that any outcome is likely.
If you have questions about whether this kind of litigation applies to your family, talk to a lawyer who can look at your specific facts. A phone call costs you nothing and tells you more than a blog post ever will.
General information, not legal advice. Every case is different.
The Law Offices of Travis R. Walker, P.A.
1100 SE Federal Highway, Stuart, Florida 34994
(772) 708 0952
www.TravisWalkerLaw.com
