Preliminary
Injunction a
Powerful Rebuke as
Trump Escalates
Campaign to
Dismantle ICC
(New
York, N.Y., October
13, 2026) — In
a landmark victory
for free speech and
justice, the United
States District
Court for the
Southern District of
New York today
granted a preliminary injunction
blocking the Trump
administration from
enforcing its
sanctions regarding
the International
Criminal Court (ICC)
against DAWN and
Taxpayers Alliance
Against Genocide
(TAAG), the two
organizations said
today.
The
court's order in DAWN
et al. v. Trump et
al.
bars federal
agencies from
imposing civil fines
or criminal
penalties on the
plaintiffs for
submitting evidence
to the ICC or
engaging with
sanctioned
Palestinian human
rights organizations
and U.N. Special
Rapporteur Francesca
Albanese. While the
court declined to
strike down the
entire sanctions
regime at this
stage, its finding
that the executive
order likely
violates the
plaintiffs' free
speech rights
reaffirms that the
Constitution
protects the right
to speak, associate,
and engage in
Palestine-related
human rights
advocacy.
"Today,
a U.S. federal court
has put the brakes
in a major way on
the Trump
administration's
efforts to shield
from justice the
Israeli officials
who have perpetrated
a genocide and their
U.S. backers," said
Omar Shakir,
executive director
of DAWN. "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 U.S. and
Israeli war crimes."
Following
the court's
decision, DAWN
announced that it
will immediately
resume its advocacy
with the ICC to
prosecute Israeli
and American
perpetrators of
grave crimes and
will work
collaboratively with
al-Haq, al-Mezan,
the Palestinian
Center for Human
Rights (PCHR), and
UN Special
Rapporteur Francesca
Albanese, to the
fullest extent
permitted by law.
TAAG announced that
it will move forward
with finalizing its
evidence submission
to the ICC on the
role of U.S.
officials in aiding
and abetting
genocide in
Palestine.
Executive
Order 14203, issued
in February 2025,
grants
administration
officials the power
to impose sanctions
on foreigners for
supporting the ICC's
investigations into
U.S. and Israeli
nationals for war
crimes, crimes
against humanity,
and genocide and
makes it a federal
offense to provide a
"service" to—or
receive one from—a
sanctioned
individual or
entity. It does so
by declaring that
such investigations
constitute a
"national
emergency," based on
false claims that
the ICC lacks
jurisdiction over
crimes committed by
U.S. and Israeli
nationals and that
those countries
"strictly adhere to
the laws of war."
The
Trump administration
has used Executive
Order 14203 to
sanction ICC
prosecutors and
judges, as well as
leading Palestinian
human rights groups
al-Haq, al-Mezan and
the Palestinian
Center for Human
Rights (PCHR) and
the UN Special
Rapporteur on the
situation of human
rights in the
Palestinian
territories occupied
since 1967,
Francesca Albanese.
Because the
government can
interpret the term
"service" to
encompass anything
that confers a
benefit on the
recipient, groups
like DAWN and TAAG
could have faced
civil and criminal
charges for engaging
in routine advocacy
with the sanctioned
parties—for example,
filing a brief with
the ICC encouraging
it to investigate
possible crimes,
sharing evidence or
advocacy ideas with
Palestinian human
rights groups or Ms.
Albanese, or working
with them on a
campaign to lift the
sanctions. Faced
with that threat,
many U.S. groups
have halted their
ICC-facing work and
severed professional
ties with the
Palestinian human
rights groups and
Ms. Albanese.
In
its ruling, the
court, citing
rulings in other
challenges to the
ICC sanctions, found
that DAWN and TAAG
"demonstrate a
likelihood of
success on the
merits of their
claim that the 2025
Order violates their
First Amendment
rights to speak."
The court in
particular found
that the sanctions
represent an
unjustified
content-based
regulation of
speech. In addition,
the court found that
the organizations'
self-censorship in
the shadow of the
sanctions regime
constitutes
"irreparable harm"
that warrants
issuing the
preliminary
injunction.
The
court declined to
strike down the
entire executive
order as
unconstitutional at
this stage. The
order, though, makes
clear that sanctions
cannot be weaponized
against the
plaintiffs to
suppress disfavored
viewpoints or
firewall Americans
from international
accountability
mechanisms.
"Today's
decision is a
victory for the
First Amendment and
an important step in
unraveling the ICC
sanctions regime,"
said Joseph Pace,
DAWN and TAAG's
attorney.
The
ruling comes just
days after the Trump
administration
imposed sanctions
against the ICC as
an institution,
undermining the
struggle for
accountability
across the world.
This decision–the
first by a federal
court since the U.S.
government's latest
attack on the
ICC–makes clear that
the Trump
administration
cannot use sanctions
to violate the
Americans'
constitutional
rights.
TAAG
is an association
that was formed to
prepare and submit
communications to
the ICC prosecutor
documenting the role
of U.S. officials in
committing—or aiding
and abetting the
commission of—war
crimes, crimes
against humanity,
and other grave
abuses, and to
engage in related
research,
educational, and
advocacy efforts in
support of
accountability for
those abuses.
DAWN,
the legacy
organization of the
late Saudi
journalist Jamal
Khashoggi, works to
promote human rights
and combat impunity
across the Middle
East and North
Africa. In recent
years, DAWN has
conducted
significant research
and advocacy to hold
Israeli and U.S.
officials
accountable for
grave abuses.
In
January 2025, just
before the issuance
of the Trump
sanctions, DAWN
submitted a 279-page submission
to the court urging
it to investigate
and charge Biden
administration
officials for their
role in aiding and
abetting Israeli
crimes in Gaza. DAWN
also made a 2022 filing
to the ICC regarding
the Israeli army's
Netzah Yehuda
Battalion and a 2023 submission
identifying Israeli
military commanders
active in the Gaza
war.
The
lawsuit, DAWN et al.
v. Trump et al., No.
26-cv-5957, was
filed on July 15,
2026, in the U.S.
District Court for
the Southern
District of New
York, just two days
after U.S. Secretary
of State Marco Rubio
threatened again
to dismantle the
ICC, including in a
July 13 Wall Street
Journal op-ed
that references DAWN's advocacy for international justice.
The complaint
challenged EO 14203
and its implementing
regulations under
the First Amendment,
the Fifth
Amendment's Due
Process Clause for
unconstitutional
vagueness, and
IEEPA's statutory
limits.
The
Court gave the
parties until
October 20 to confer
on next steps in the
case, in light of
this ruling.
"By
granting this
injunction, Judge
Furman has affirmed
important First
Amendment
protections for our
work seeking
accountability for
senior U.S.
officials who have
aided and abetted
the ongoing genocide
in Palestine," said
Anna Marie Stenberg
of TAAG. "This is a
significant victory,
but our work is far
from over. TAAG
remains committed to
pursuing justice and
holding U.S.
officials
accountable."
The link to the press release on DAWN's
website:
https://dawnmena.org/u-s-court-blocks-enforcement-of-icc-sanctions-against-groups-advocating-for-palestinian-rights/
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