Law Professors Sue to Block Criminal Court Executive Order (2)

Two law professors are suing President Trump, the US Department of State, and others over a Feb. 6 executive order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, says the executive order violates due process and the free speech clause of the First Amendment.

It also alleges Trump exceeded his authority under International Emergency Economic Powers Act, saying the law doesn’t authorize the president to regulate or prohibit importing or exporting “any information or informational materials.”

The executive order accuses the ICC of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting America and Israel and claims it “abused its power by issuing baseless arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.”

It designates the current prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, for sanctions and prohibits “the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to” the order.

Plaintiffs Gabor Rona and Lisa Davis—a special adviser to the prosecutor of the ICC—have provided and planned to continue providing services “to, or for the benefit” of Kahn by providing “advice, training, information, and analysis, and by undertaking public and private advocacy, including publications and presentations, in support of their mission and work,” the complaint says.

Rona is a professor of practice at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York and director of the Law and Armed Conflict Project at the school’s Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights. Davos is a professor at the City University of New York School of Law and the special adviser on gender and other discriminatory crimes to the prosecutor of the ICC.

They’re asking the court for declaratory relief and a preliminary and permanent injunction to stop the defendants from enforcing IEEPA’s civil or criminal penalty provisions against them, along with reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.

Penalties under the IEEPA include civil and criminal fines and up to 20 years’ incarceration.

The complaint says the Feb. 6 executive order is nearly identical to a 2020 executive order from Trump’s first term that a federal district court judge preliminarily enjoined the government from enforcing against Rona and others.

Judge Katherine Polk Failla said in that case it was likely that the 2020 executive order constituted an impermissible restriction on the right of free speech. The government never appealed the court’s decision and the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed after the executive order was rescinded, the complaint said.

In addition to Trump and the State Department, the lawsuit names Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the United States Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Office of Foreign Asset Control, and Lisa Palluconi as OFAC’s acting director.

The State Department said it doesn’t comment on pending or ongoing litigation. The Justice Department and Treasury didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg Law’s request for comment.

The White House didn’t immediately respond with comment on the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are represented by Foley Hoag LLP and Open Society Foundations.

The case is Rona v. Trump, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:25-cv-03114, complaint 4/15/25.