Foley Hoag Helps Secure Permanent Injunction Barring Trump Administration From Enforcing Executive Order Sanctioning International Criminal Court

Foley Hoag attorneys helped secure a permanent injunction barring the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC). On Wednesday July 30, 2025, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jesse M. Furman permanently enjoined the administration from enforcing the executive order, which had authorized severe civil and criminal penalties for those who support the ICC, ruling that it violated the First Amendment rights of two law professors who provide education, training, analysis and other services to the Office of the ICC Prosecutor.

The lawsuit, filed April 15, 2025 by Professors Gabor Rona and Lisa Davis against President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, Office of Foreign Assets Control Director Lisa Palluconi, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and their respective U.S. Departments, challenged Executive Order 14203 on the basis that it violates constitutional rights, including the plaintiffs’ freedom of speech and prevents them from carrying out work in support of international justice.

Professors Rona and Davis, the latter the Special Adviser to the ICC Prosecutor on Gender and Other Discriminatory Crimes, contended that the executive order irreparably harms their ability to exercise their freedom of speech and to carry out their professional work.

International Litigation and Arbitration Partner Andrew Loewenstein, who served as lead counsel in the litigation, praised the decision for “vindicating the First Amendment rights of Professors Rona and Davis.” He added, “this decision allows them to resume providing critical support for the ICC’s investigation and prosecution of some of the world’s most heinous crimes, including those perpetrated in Ukraine, Darfur and by the Taliban in Afghanistan against women and girls and LGBTQ+ victims.”

In 2020, 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 123 states that are party to the treaty. The U.S., while instrumental in setting up the ICC, has never ratified the treaty.

In addition to Loewenstein, the plaintiffs were represented by Foley Hoag attorneys Christopher Hart, Shrutih Tewarie, Nicholas Renzler, Ariella Katz Miller and Hannah Sweeney, alongside Open Society Justice Initiative attorneys James Goldston, Esti Tambay, and Genevieve Quinn.