Two United States-based advocacy groups have filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration, contending that sanctions imposed on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and several Palestinian human rights organisations violate the free speech protections of the First Amendment. The legal action, lodged in a Manhattan federal court by Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and the Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide, argues that the measures have forced American citizens to sever professional ties and abandon constitutionally protected advocacy work for fear of criminal penalties and civil fines. According to the 43-page complaint, the groups’ activities—including documenting alleged war crimes for submission to the ICC, publishing research, and lobbying US policymakers—fall squarely within the First Amendment’s guarantees of speech and association.

Viewed from Washington, the sanctions are a necessary defence of national sovereignty. The White House has described the ICC’s investigations into alleged war crimes by US personnel in Afghanistan and by Israeli officials in Gaza as an “intolerable” threat, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has publicly vowed to “dismantle the ICC, brick by brick, if necessary.” The administration’s executive order, issued in February 2025, freezes assets and imposes visa bans on ICC judges, prosecutors, and anyone assisting the court’s probes of American citizens or allies. A diplomatic campaign is under way, with US officials telephoning foreign governments to demand they withdraw support from the Hague-based tribunal, while warning of intensified scrutiny for nations that rely on American security assistance yet refuse to reject the court’s authority. The US has never ratified the Rome Statute and does not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction over its nationals.

In a parallel development, a federal judge in a separate case has blocked the administration from enforcing an immigration policy that could deny visas or deport foreign researchers working on misinformation, disinformation and online hate speech. Chief US District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the policy likely violates the First Amendment, noting that non-citizens could reasonably understand it to place their immigration status at risk simply because they work in content moderation. The ruling, which affects individuals linked to organisations such as the Center for Countering Digital Hate, reinforces the legal argument advanced by DAWN and its co-plaintiffs: that the executive branch is using economic and immigration tools to police political expression.

The ICC, established in 2002 to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a Hamas commander over alleged war crimes in Gaza—a move the US condemned as a “shameful moral equivalency.” The sanctions have already forced targeted judges to restructure their personal and family lives, with frozen accounts and blocked access to US-based financial and digital services. The lawsuit names President Donald Trump, Secretary Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and the director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control as defendants. The administration has not formally responded to the complaint, and the case is expected to proceed through the federal court in New York, while the broader diplomatic offensive against the ICC continues.