Law & Crime reports…
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) hopes to undo a Trump and Biden administration effort to sanction and punish international lawyers who are investigating the United States for war crimes. On Friday, the group filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the government’s economic sanctions regime against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Injunctive relief is warranted because the Restrictions are unconstitutional content-based restrictions on [the attorneys’ and law professors’] speech and are ultra vires,” the filing alleges—using the Latin term for an invalid act beyond the powers of the law.
Recall: the late-stage Trump administration, by way of a widely-criticized executive order, took revenge against the international tribunal after the ICC’s top prosecutor authorized an investigation into U.S. war crimes committed by U.S. authorities during the co-called “Global War on Terrorism.” In response, 200 law professors, legal scholars and international lawyers demanded that the White house rescind those sanctions–which were implemented under via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Collectively, the sanctions also purport to bar the efforts of U.S. citizens to help the ICC in way. On their own terms in the resulting regulations promulgated by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “services of any nature whatsoever” are prohibited.
