Law professors win injunction against Trump admin over proposed sanctions for their work with International Criminal Crt

Source: Law & Crime

Aug 23rd, 2025, 10:25 am


A federal judge sitting in Manhattan this week barred the Trump administration from enforcing sanctions on two U.S. citizens and law professors who work with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

On April 15, Cardozo Law Professor Gabor Rona and CUNY School of Law Professor Lisa Davis filed a 31-page lawsuit against President Donald Trump and several other members of the federal government over a February executive order that imposes sanctions on the ICC, prohibits certain interactions with designated ICC officials, and threatens both civil and criminal penalties for any such violations.

The lawsuit says Trump's order "threatens to unconstitutionally impose civil and criminal penalties" on the plaintiffs "for providing education, advice, training, information, analysis, and other services to or for the benefit of the Prosecutor of the ICC, in aid of the ICC's investigation and prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide." Those threatened penalties, the plaintiffs point out, include up to 20 years behind bars for the legal education services they provide.

Contemporaneously with the lawsuit, the plaintiffs asked the Southern District of New York to issue a preliminary injunction. In late July, U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman, a Barack Obama appointee, more or less granted that request – by issuing a permanent injunction as to all the defendants except Trump himself. "In law, as in life, two wrongs do not make a right," the judge opined – recalling efforts by the first Trump administration to sanction ICC-affiliated lawyers, law professors, and activists.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/vindicating-the-first-amendment-law-professors-win-injunction-against-trump-admin-over-proposed-sanctions-for-their-work-with-international-criminal-court/