Three ICC judges sue the Trump administration over US sanctions
Three judges of the International Criminal Court have sued the Trump administration in federal court in Manhattan, challenging US sanctions imposed on them in 2025. The plaintiffs are Kimberly Prost of Canada, Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda and Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin.
The sanctions blocked the judges’ US-based property and barred American individuals and companies from providing them funds, goods or services. According to the suit, that cut off access to credit cards, banking, online platforms including Amazon and Google, travel booking and health insurance. The judges argue the measures exceeded the president’s authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which requires a genuine national emergency, and were “designed to exert extra-judicial pressure” to punish past decisions and influence future ones.
The dispute stems from the ICC’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its earlier inquiry into alleged US conduct in Afghanistan. The United States, like China, Russia and Israel, does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction. By suing inside the US legal system, the judges are testing whether American courts will treat sanctions aimed at an international tribunal as an overreach of emergency economic powers — the same statute the administration has leaned on across a range of actions.