Legal challenge says Trump ICC sanctions tread on US citizens’ rights

Groups charge that sanctions against ICC, Palestinian rights organisations stifle freedom of speech and expression. Washington, DC – A new legal challenge is taking aim at the sanctions imposed by United States President Donald Trump’s administration on the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying they trample on the constitutional rights of US citizens. The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday by the Washington, DC-based DAWN rights organisation and the Taxpayers Alliance Against Genocide (TAAG). It specifically targets sanctions imposed by the Trump administration beginning in February 2025 in response to ICC arrest warrants issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3A world on trial: How lawyers documenting Israeli abuse pay a pricelist 2 of 3British lawyers’ body suspends ICC Prosecutor Khan over misconduct claimlist 3 of 3The ICC must investigate Israel’s genocidal use of sexual violenceend of list Trump’s executive order at the time imposed penalties on ICC officials who take part in investigations related to the US and its allies, particularly Israel. Organisations or individuals who supported those investigations are also targeted. The administration has since sanctioned ICC prosecutors and judges, several Palestinian organisations that have provided evidence to The Hague-based court and United Nations Special Rapporteur for occupied Palestinian territory Francesca Albanese. The sanctions under Trump’s executive order “violate Americans’ constitutional right to engage in Palestine-related human rights advocacy”, DAWN and TAAG charged in the lawsuit. That includes “limiting what Americans can say to an international tribunal or to foreign advocates, as well as by limiting their ability to associate with the sanctioned parties”, the groups said. The lawsuit also said the Trump administration’s actions violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), passed by the US Congress in 1977, which “bars the president from using sanctions to restrict ‘personal communications’ or the transmission of ‘information or informational materials'”. The filing comes days after the Trump administration promised to escalate its campaign against the ICC, saying it would seek to “dismantle” the world’s top international criminal tribunal, which was founded in 2002. In a video statement and an opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged “a whole-of-government response” against the court, which he said “threatens every aspect” of the US political and legal system. The US is not a signatory to the ICC’s founding document, the Rome Statute, and is, therefore, not subject to its jurisdiction. The court, however, has maintained that US citizens may be investigated and prosecuted for abuses committed within the territory of members of the court. It has taken the same position towards Israel during its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza. No US citizen has been prosecuted by the ICC although the court still has open investigations into abuses committed in Afghanistan during the two-decade deployment of foreign forces that began in the early 2000s, including US military and intelligence personnel. Rubio said the US was considering several tactics in its approach, including heaping pressure on US allies and aid recipients not to comply with the court. The administration has also promised more sanctions and travel bans. The DAWN and TAAG lawsuit is the latest to challenge the sanctions. A federal judge in New York previously sided with two law professors who argued the sanctions stifled their First Amendment rights under the US Constitution, which allows them to advise the ICC prosecutor and his office. The sanctions against Albanese were also briefly lifted after a court order in May but were reimposed upon appeal from the Trump administration. Sanctioned ICC judges have also filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. In a statement, Omar Shakir, the executive director of DAWN, said the Trump administration “is using the blunt instrument of economic sanctions not only to punish human rights defenders but to police the political expression of millions of Americans”. “The US government has the largest megaphone in the world and it is perfectly capable of pleading its case – or Israel’s,” Joseph Pace, a lawyer representing DAWN and TAAG, said in a statement. “What it cannot do is bar Americans from sharing a contrary perspective with the ICC, much less criminalise contact with non-American human rights defenders whose only ‘misdeed’ was calling for justice for US and Israeli crimes.”