Today, Foley Hoag attorneys filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York challenging the sanctions imposed on Judge Kimberly Prost, Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa, and Judge Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”).  The Trump Administration has subjected each of these distinguished jurists to sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”), pursuant to Executive Order 14,203, Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court, and its implementing regulations.

The lawsuit against President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Office of Foreign Assets Control Director Bradley Smith, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche—and their respective Departments—challenges Executive Order 14,203 and the designations of the three judges on the basis that the sanctions regime violates IEEPA, the Administrative Procedure Act, and plaintiffs’ constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment.

“This sanctions regime is the antithesis of the rule of law,” said International Litigation and Arbitration Partner Andrew Loewenstein, who serves as lead counsel in the litigation.  “By targeting their financial and other personal interests, the sanctions are designed to exert extra-judicial pressure on Judges Prost, Bossa, and Alapini-Gansou and their colleagues on the ICC bench, with the objective of punishing them for past judicial decisions and coercing them into prioritizing their private interests over deciding cases on the basis of the law and facts.”  He added, “the sanctions obstruct the ability of victims and witnesses of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, as well as their lawyers, from being able to present evidence or argument in the judges’ courtrooms or otherwise participate in proceedings before them.”

Last year, the Foley Hoag team helped secure a permanent injunction barring the Trump Administration from enforcing Executive Order 14,203 against Professors Gabor Rona and Lisa Davis, the latter the Special Adviser to the ICC Prosecutor on Gender and Other Discriminatory Crimes, on the basis that the order violated their rights under the First Amendment.

During the first Trump Administration, Foley Hoag represented Professor Rona and other plaintiffs in a constitutional challenge to a nearly identical executive order.  In that case, the court issued a preliminary injunction. The case was later voluntarily dismissed after President Biden revoked the executive order.

The ICC was created in 2002 by the Rome Statute, a treaty, and is authorized to investigate and prosecute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity that are committed on the territories, or by the nationals, of the 125 states that are parties to the treaty.  The U.S., while instrumental in setting up the ICC, has never ratified the treaty.

In addition to Loewenstein, the plaintiffs are represented by Foley Hoag attorneys Nicholas Renzler, Amir Farhadi, Rawda Fawaz, and Hannah Sweeney.  Their co-counsel in representing Judge Prost are Open Society Justice Initiative attorneys James Goldston, Esti Tambay, Genevieve Quinn, and Natasha Arnpriester.