A U.S. advocacy group founded by slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and three co-plaintiffs sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, arguing that sanctions targeting cooperation with the International Criminal Court unlawfully restrict their work with the tribunal.
The 43-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenges U.S. President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14203, which declared a national emergency over what it called the ICC’s “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” The order authorizes sanctions on foreign persons who directly engage in or support ICC investigations of U.S. personnel or nationals of allied countries, including Israel.
The plaintiffs—Democracy for the Arab World Now, the Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide and two members of the latter group—say the order has forced them to stop submitting information to the ICC alleging war crimes by Israel and the United States. They also contend they ended cooperation with U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and cut ties with Palestinian organizations sanctioned by the administration out of fear of civil or criminal penalties.
The lawsuit seeks to block enforcement of the executive order’s speech-related provisions and asks the court to declare them unconstitutional and beyond the president’s statutory authority.
“No one prosecuted these plaintiffs, fined them or sent them so much as a stern letter,” Mark Goldfeder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JNS. “They silenced themselves and then sued over the silence.”
“The Supreme Court has a name for that, and it isn’t injury. It’s manufactured standing,” he said. “Hell, one of the plaintiffs formed itself months after the sanctions issued, for the announced purpose of preparing the very filing it now says it’s too frightened to file.”
The lawsuit follows sanctions imposed under Executive Order 14203 against ICC officials and separate sanctions targeting Albanese and several Palestinian organizations accused by the administration of supporting efforts against Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly condemned the ICC’s investigations of Israeli officials, including the November 2024 arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
