Global Governance — 2026-06-26

ICC Judges File Federal Lawsuit in Manhattan Challenging US Sanctions on Court Personnel

BLUFA preliminary injunction blocking ICC sanctions enforcement against at least one plaintiff judge is likely within 90 days, which would operationally hollow the administration's primary coercive lever over the court.

Judges Kimberly Prost (Canada), Solomy Bossa (Uganda), and Reine Alapini-Gansou (Benin) filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on June 25, the first ICC judges designated under Executive Order 14203 to challenge their own sanctions in court Open Society Justice Initiative" data-url="https://www.justiceinitiative.org/newsroom/icc-judges-sue-trump-administration-over-icc-sanctions" data-rt="primary" data-otype="ngo">12. The sanctions have frozen the judges' U.S. bank accounts, blocked credit cards and online services including Amazon and Google, and in some cases cut off health insurance, according to the Open Society Justice Initiative 123. The complaint asserts the order exceeds IEEPA authority because no genuine national emergency exists, violates Fifth Amendment due process by freezing assets without adequate process, and constitutes arbitrary agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act 123. Four prior challenges by U.S. advocates produced rulings barring enforcement against Americans providing speech-based services to the ICC 12.

Analysis
The judges' documented asset-freeze injuries add a Fifth Amendment property hook absent from four earlier SDNY rulings that held EO 14203 unconstitutional as applied to speech-based ICC services. A preliminary injunction within 90 days is likely. High confidence reflects consistent judicial rejection of EO 14203's scope across four successive cases, corroborated by independent reporting from Courthouse News, Al Jazeera, and Anadolu Agency despite the Open Society Justice Initiative's institutional stake as plaintiff's counsel. Foreign-policy deference doctrines give the district court grounds to deny relief by crediting the administration's emergency finding at face value, which would foreclose domestic remedy until the Second Circuit acts. An injunction compels immediate DOJ appeal and establishes a litigation template for five remaining designated judges.

4 sources

ICC Judges Sue Trump Administration Over ICC Sanctions - Open Society Justice Initiative
Sanctioned ICC judges sue Trump in New York - Courthouse News Service
ICC judges sue Trump over sanctions, call measures unlawful - Al Jazeera
ICC judges launch legal challenge against US sanctions - Anadolu Agency