Constituents in northern California filed a class-action lawsuit in late December against Reps. Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman—both California Democrats—for their votes on April 20 supporting U.S. military aid to Israel.
The congressmen “exceeded the constitutional limitations on their tax and spend authority by voting to authorize the funding of the Israeli military when they were aware, or should have been aware, that the Israeli military was committing genocide in Gaza, which made their votes a violation of customary international and federal law that prohibits complicity in genocide,” per the suit, which was filed in federal court in San Francisco on Dec. 19.
The 21 plaintiffs listed in the suit state that the two congressmen acted unconstitutionally when they voted, along with 364 other members of Congress, to approve H.R.8034, the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act 2024, in April. (Seven members abstained and 58 voted against it.)
Taxpayers Against Genocide said that 500 people are part of the suit, represented by Szeto-Wong Law.
The suit cites the International Court of Justice, Amnesty International and U.N. adviser Francesca Albanese, who has a long history of antisemitic remarks, to support its claim that the Jewish state is committing genocide.
The plaintiffs “have suffered and continue to suffer concrete, particularized and actual or imminent injury as a result of defendants’ conduct. Each of the class representatives has experienced moral injury caused by defendants’ votes in favor of the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which forced the class representatives to be complicit in the genocide carried out by the State of Israel in Gaza due to the tax dollars paid by class representatives being used to fund Israeli military activity in Gaza,” the suit states.
It adds that “this moral injury has manifested in emotional or psychic distress experienced by all class representatives, including, but not limited to, symptoms such as bouts of uncontrollable weeping, inability to sleep, distractions from work, despair for the future of their children and humanity, inability to experience joy, feelings of guilt, social isolation and anxiety.”
“The foregoing injury has been ongoing since April 20, 2024,” it alleges.
The plaintiffs ask the court to prevent the congressmen from voting for Israeli military aid in the future and ask for “compensatory damages” and “reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.”
David Levine, a professor at the University of California College of Law, San Francisco, told the North Coast Journal that the lawsuit is “totally dead on arrival because of the Speech and Debate Clause,” which protects members of Congress from legal liability for their votes.
“I haven’t seen any explanation of how the attorneys think they even have a prayer of justifying this suit,” he told the publication.
A spokesperson for Thompson, one of the congressmen being sued, said the congressman “understands that it has been the civilian population that has paid the cost of Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel and he remains gravely concerned about the scale of civilian loss in this war.”
“That’s why he has advocated and continues to advocate for the Biden administration to work with the State Department and our allies to help secure a negotiated bilateral ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages and the establishment of a two-state solution to ensure peace and self-determination for the Palestinian and Israeli people,” the spokesperson stated. “Achieving peace and securing the safety of civilians won’t be accomplished by filing a lawsuit.”