{"id":365,"date":"2026-07-15T17:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=365"},"modified":"2026-07-15T17:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:38:11","slug":"trumps-sanctions-against-the-icc-are-unconstitutional-rights-groups-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=365","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Sanctions Against the ICC Are Unconstitutional, Rights Groups Say"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Two pro-Palestine groups<\/span> filed a lawsuit Wednesday that takes aim at U.S. sanctions against international human rights groups linked to efforts to hold Israel accountable for war crimes.<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court by Democracy for the Arab World Now, or DAWN, and Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide, seeks to reverse sanctions brought under Executive Order 14203.<\/p>\n

The order, which President Donald Trump made in February 2025, grants the administration power to issue penalties against any person or group seeking to bring a case against the U.S. or its allies \u2014 namely Israel \u2014 before the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs, both of whom coordinate with international NGOs in an effort to hold the U.S. and Israel accountable for war crimes, are seeking a declaration that the ICC sanctions are in violation of their First Amendment rights because they create obstacles to free association. The lawsuit also asks for an injunction barring the Trump administration from using sanctions to stymie free speech.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s assault on the ICC \u2014 most recently including a vow to \u201cdismantle\u201d the court \u2014 has focused mostly on efforts to hold Israel accountable for war crimes. In November 2024, the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, another Israeli official, and an official with the armed Palestinian group Hamas for activities during the time period of Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The White House executive order came down shortly after the arrest warrants were issued.<\/p>\n

The rights groups\u2019 lawsuit specifically highlights sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the U.N. official tasked with probing human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories, and three Palestinian nongovernmental organizations. According to the plaintiffs, the sanctions impinge on their First Amendment rights by preventing them from engaging in protected speech activities with Albanese and the NGOs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d said Omar Shakir, the executive director of DAWN, which was founded by journalist Jamal Khashoggi before his assassination by the Saudi government. \u201cThe government is violating the constitutional rights of American citizens in order to shield officials of a foreign government who have committed a genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defendants named in the suit are Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Brad Smith, the director of the Treasury Department\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control. (None of the American government officials immediately responded to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n

Trump and his allies\u2019 war on the international human rights community goes back years: In 2020, Trump issued sanctions against an ICC prosecutor after she called for an investigation into U.S. human rights abuses in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

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Shortly after retaking the White House, Trump lifted Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in violence against Palestinians and destruction of their property. Trump then issued Executive Order 14203, \u201cImposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court,\u201d which placed visa restrictions and financial penalties on individuals and groups seeking to help the ICC in any potential case against the U.S., Israel, or other allies.<\/p>\n

Months later, the administration issued sanctions against Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur. Albanese was briefly removed from the sanctions list in May after a federal judge ruled that the sanctions violated her rights, but the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers U.S. sanctions, added her to the list again days later, according to Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

The Albanese sanctions were followed in September 2025 with an edict sanctioning three NGOs: Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.<\/p>\n

In addition to penalizing Albanese and the NGOs, the sanctions bar any U.S. people or groups from engaging with them and make it a federal offense to receive or provide any \u201cservice\u201d related to designated groups and people \u2014 an action the plaintiffs argue is in violation of their First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit comes at a moment of heightened attention to the sanctions against the ICC. Days before the lawsuit was filed, Rubio launched a broadside against the ICC in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece laying out a case for \u201cdismantling\u201d the court. Rubio specifically cited calls by DAWN for an investigation into potential war crimes in the U.S. bombing campaign against Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ICC is backed and run by a powerful network of leftist nongovernment organizations, smug globalists, and hostile Third World governments united by their enmity toward the U.S.,\u201d Rubio wrote. \u201cUsing all the tools at our government\u2019s disposal, working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC\u2014brick by brick, if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing of Rubio\u2019s renewed attack on the ICC alongside the lawsuit appears to be a coincidence, but only serves to further underscore the stakes, according to Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, a spokesperson for DAWN.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that he mentioned DAWN in his Wall Street Journal op-ed shows that the risk [of prosecution] to Americans is real,\u201d Schaeffer Omer-Man told The Intercept. \u201cBut our primary goal is to get legal clarity that we can continue to have a working relationship with Francesca Albanese, and, equally if not more importantly, that we can resume working shoulder to shoulder with Palestinian civil society and human rights groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Intel Pick Played Key Role in NYT Subpoenas \u2014 But Some Democrats Still On the Fence<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lawsuit came as the Trump administration, which has attacked the International Criminal Court on Israel\u2019s behalf, vowed to destroy the ICC entirely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s Sanctions Against the ICC Are Unconstitutional, Rights Groups Say - New Home America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newhomeamerica.com\/?p=365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s Sanctions Against the ICC Are Unconstitutional, Rights Groups Say - 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