A United States federal judge temporarily blocked US President Donald Trump's administration from sanctioning two US-based human rights organizations on Tuesday for working with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
In his order, US Judge Jesse M. Furman cited a 2025 case in which two law professors filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC.
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (TAAG) sued the Trump administration in July over these ICC sanctions. At the time, they argued that the order "unconstitutionally restrict [s] Americans from seeking justice on Palestine at the ICC and working with human rights defenders designated solely for calling on the ICC to investigate Israeli and American nationals."
Furman said that DAWN and TAAG raised a similar challenge in their lawsuit against the two law professors, in which the court had decided that the order “violated those plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights because it constituted a content-based regulation of their speech-based activities and did not survive strict scrutiny."
However, Furman rejected the plaintiffs' request to declare the 2025 executive order as "facially unconstitutional."
US State Department says ICC poses 'intolerable threat' to US sovereignty
A US State Department spokesperson told The Guardian that, while they could not comment on pending litigation, “The Trump administration has been clear: the ICC poses an intolerable threat to US sovereignty.”
Omar Shakir, DAWN's executive director, celebrated the courtroom victory, saying that the court had "put the brakes" on the Trump administration's efforts to "shield from justice the Israeli officials who have perpetrated a genocide and their US backers.
"The court ruling makes clear that the law does not permit barring Americans from advocating for justice at the ICC or working with human rights defenders that this administration sanctioned solely for calling for justice for US and Israeli war crimes," Shakir added.
TAAG's Anna Marie Stenberg also responded to the court decision, saying that the judge had "affirmed important First Amendment protections," and that it was a "significant victory, but our work is far from over."
Trump administration sanctions ICC after former judge wins Nobel Peace Prize
Trump's administration imposed sanctions on the ICC on Friday, hours after one of its former judges won the Nobel Peace Prize, putting Washington on a diplomatic collision course with European allies.
The Trump administration has long been hostile to the court founded in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and has previously imposed sanctions on its prosecutors and judges. Friday's move would go far further, by potentially punishing companies that provide services to the court itself.
Washington has denounced the ICC over arrest warrants issued for Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a past investigation into actions of US soldiers in Afghanistan, which the ICC has since closed.
Reuters contributed to this report.