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The Lawfare Project applauds revocation of Executive Order 14115

Jewish civil-rights organization condemned dangerous sanctions regime targeting opponents of former administration’s policies on Judea and Samaria.

Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump signs executive orders on the first day of his second term, Jan. 20, 2025. Credit: White House.

The Lawfare Project welcomes the Trump administration’s decision to revoke Executive Order 14115, a legally and morally indefensible policy that sanctioned Israelis and their American supporters for opposing the Biden administration’s stance on Judea and Samaria. This executive overreach by the previous administration not only violated constitutional freedoms but also set a dangerous precedent for punishing political dissent.

In December, the Lawfare Project announced its financial support of a lawsuit challenging the order, led by an exceptional legal team including Zell, Aaron & Co., Lewin & Lewin LLP, Marcus & Marcus LLC, and professor Eugene Kontorovich. This litigation was instrumental in highlighting the unjust, discriminatory nature of the sanctions and the broader threat they posed to free speech and due process.

“These sanctions were not just an attack on Israel; they were an attack on American citizens exercising their constitutional rights,” said Brooke Goldstein, executive director of the Lawfare Project. “This revocation is a critical step in undoing a shameful policy, but we must remain vigilant to ensure that no administration, Republican or Democrat, ever again abuses its power to target the Jewish community and its allies.”

Last week’s revocation is a decisive victory not just for the Jewish community but for all who believe in free speech, due process and equal protection under the law.

“The revocation of this executive order reaffirms what we have long argued: these sanctions were a dangerous and unprecedented weaponization of foreign policy against a close democratic ally,” said Kontorovich. “However, there remains no legal safeguard preventing a future administration from reinstating similar measures. We will continue to advocate for strong protections against such unconstitutional abuses of executive authority.”

The Lawfare Project remains committed to defending these fundamental rights and ensuring that the political weaponization of sanctions has no place in American policy.

About & contact the publisher
The Lawfare Project is a nonprofit legal think tank based in New York City that mobilizes public officials, media, jurists and legal experts to counter the international lawfare phenomenon: the abuse of the law as a weapon of war against Western democracy. Through its Legal Fund, the LP facilitates and finances offensive and defensive counter-lawfare actions regarding pressing issues that include, among others: fighting terror-front organizations operating in the United States and Canada; bigoted and unlawful international commercial discrimination based on ethnicity and national origin; and the perversion and misapplication of international and national human-rights law against the United States and other democracies.
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