A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from penalizing two U.S.-based organizations that support the International Criminal Court’s investigations into alleged war crimes in Gaza. The ruling affects groups that gathered evidence on the killing of Palestinians, and it came only after they went to court to defend their right to do so.
Judge Jesse M. Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by Democracy for the Arab World Now, known as DAWN, and Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide, or TAAG. The groups argued that President Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the I.C.C. violated their First Amendment right to free speech.
Judge Furman said the groups were likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment claims. The order is temporary. The underlying case continues.
What the Order Demanded
The executive order dates to February 2025, one year ago by the calendar. It directed federal agencies to “impose tangible and significant consequences” on people who worked on investigations the Trump administration said threatened the national security of the United States and its allies, including Israel.
The order reached beyond the court itself. It targeted people and groups who supply information to the court. The plaintiffs are rights organizations that worked to gather information for the I.C.C. as it investigates allegations of war crimes against Palestinians. The order sought to punish their evidence-gathering.
The Warrants Behind the Sanctions
The sanctions followed a specific act. In November 2024, two years ago, the court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant. The court said they had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office and the United States rejected the accusations. The administration didn’t respond to the warrants with a legal rebuttal before the court. Instead, it issued an executive order aimed at the court and anyone assisting its investigators.
The State’s Role
The sequence in the record is plain. A court issued warrants for a foreign leader and his former defense minister. The U.S. president then ordered federal agencies to impose penalties on people working on the investigations, citing the national security of the United States and its allies, including Israel. Two domestic organizations that collect information on Palestinian victims then had to file suit to avoid penalties for that work.
The plaintiffs used a constitutional free-speech claim, and a federal judge found it likely to succeed. That’s a narrow remedy. The injunction is preliminary and applies only to the two organizations that sued; the administration’s stated policy of directing agencies to impose consequences on people who worked on the investigations remains in place. The groups needed lawyers, a courtroom and a favorable ruling to keep doing work the order was written to discourage.
The ruling doesn’t address the warrants themselves, the allegations against Palestinians’ killers or the sanctions imposed on the court. It addresses whether two American organizations can be punished for helping investigators. For now, the answer from the bench is that they likely can’t.