Two human rights groups have sued the Trump administration, saying that its sanctions imposed on the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its investigations of Israel’s war against Hamas have illegally impeded their ability to advocate for Palestinians.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan against top administration officials by Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN) and Taxpayers Alliance Against Genocide, seeks a court order that would strike down restrictions on their advocacy and their ability to interact with Palestinian human rights groups and other sanctioned parties.
The organizations say in the lawsuit that they have been forced to censor their own advocacy work to avoid scrutiny from the White House, which in an executive order last year not only targeted the ICC but prohibited providing or receiving services to or from entities that have been sanctioned.
The lawsuit says DAWN has halted work on submissions to the ICC about Israel’s conduct during the war, stopped exchanging evidence and legal analysis with sanctioned non-government organizations and abstained from collaborating with them on advocacy campaigns. It has also been forced to “discontinue its professional engagements” with Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza.
“The chilling effect on Plaintiffs has been profound. They now face prison terms and ruinous fines if, in their interactions with the designated parties, they provide or receive anything that Defendants could plausibly characterize as a ‘service’— an extraordinarily capacious term that potentially reaches any act that confers a benefit on its recipient. Fearing liability, Plaintiffs — and countless others like them —have turned to self-censorship”
Lawsuit
The lawsuit also states that if the “Executive is permitted to blow past constitutional and statutory restraints here, there is little to stop it from weaponizing IEEPA to target other disfavored viewpoints.” It added, “A future President could, for example, declare a ‘national emergency’ over high energy prices, designate foreign environmental groups that campaign against fossil fuel extraction, and cut off American climate advocates from their overseas partners … The list of potential abuses is virtually endless.”
The suit also describes the sanctions measures as “hopelessly ineffective” at achieving President Donald Trump’s stated objective of halting “baseless” ICC prosecutions. “Suppressing [advocates’] speech, after all, does nothing to prevent ICC prosecutors from conducting their own investigations,” the legal brief said.
The Hague-based ICC has been investigating allegations of war crimes in Gaza during the war that began after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. A panel of judges issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant. The US and Israel are not among the court’s members, and neither nation recognizes its authority.
In response to the arrest warrants, Trump issued an executive order last year that accused the ICC of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel” and warned of “tangible and significant consequences” on those responsible for the ICC’s “transgressions.”
The US over the last year has slapped sanctions on Palestinian human rights groups, a series of ICC judges and staffers, including the court’s former Chief Prosecutor and Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza. Her family sued in February, saying the penalties violated the First Amendment.
Trump Administration Accused Of Violating Citizens’ Rights
Omar Shakir, the Executive Director of DAWN, said that the Trump administration is using the “blunt instrument of economic sanctions not only to punish human rights defenders but to police the political expressions of millions of Americans.”
He added in a statement that the government is “violating the constitutional rights of American citizens in order to shield officials of a foreign government who have committed a genocide.”
The lawsuit names Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Brad Smith, director of the office of foreign assets control, as defendants.
The suit comes two days after Rubio threatened to go beyond sanctions and dismantle the entire international court. He denounced the court saying that Trump’s administration would “dismantle the ICC — brick by brick, if necessary.” He warned that the court’s “overreach,” if left unchecked, could subject Border Patrol agents, federal prosecutors and US Marines to the tribunal’s jurisdiction.
“The ICC’s interfering with American military and law enforcement operations isn’t only a grave overreach of its purported authorities. It would mean the death of the US as a sovereign and independent nation. Our decision and our people would be at the mercy of the ICC and its collaborators in the ‘international community.’ To accept the ICC is to surrender control of our national destiny.”
Marco Rubio
The State Department said the campaign against the court could include additional sanctions or visa revocations and travel bans for ICC employees as well as “increased scrutiny” of nations that don’t reject ICC authority.
