Federal judge blocks enforcement of Trump's order on ICC
The ruling follows an April lawsuit by two human rights advocates challenging Trump's February 6 order authorizing potentially far-reaching economic and travel sanctions on people who work on ICC investigations of U.S. citizens or U.S. allies, such as Israel.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen called the executive order an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.
"The executive order appears to restrict substantially more speech than necessary to further that end," she wrote.
"The executive order broadly prohibits any speech-based services that benefit the prosecutor, regardless of whether those beneficial services relate to an ICC investigation of the United States, Israel, or another U.S. ally."
The White House and the ICC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The executive order imposed sanctions on ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who is British. The U.S. treasury department's Office of Foreign Assets Control also place him on a registry of sanctioned individuals and entities.
U.S. citizens who provide services for the benefit of Khan or other sanctioned individuals could face civil and criminal penalties, according to the order, which has been condemned by the ICC and dozens of countries.
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For NYC-DSA, electoral campaigns are not only focused on single candidates but also on building support for their movement, said Phara Souffrant Forrest, another DSA state assemblymember from Brooklyn. 'When DSA campaigns for a candidate … we're organizing their district around shared values like housing justice, healthcare for all and workers' rights,' she said. The chapter does not use paid canvassers, though Mamdani's campaign hired roughly 50 for specialized outreach. 'Our main asset, which money can never buy, are volunteers who are passionate, who feel ownership over a campaign because the win would be personal for them,' said Sarahana Shrestha, a DSA assemblymember representing a south-eastern New York district. Her campaign brought in many voters who had otherwise 'given up on electoral politics', she said. DSA members appeared to do the same in the mayoral primary, mobilizing thousands of new voters. Some DSA endorsees – such as Ocasio-Cortez, who the group supported in her 2018 campaign – receive DSA backing upon request once they have launched their campaigns. Others, like Mamdani, are 'cadre candidates' who have strong pre-existing ties to the organization and are recruited by and from the chapter. Since joining NYC-DSA in 2017, Mamdani has been deeply involved with the organization, helping lead other electoral campaigns and working closely with the chapter on his successful 2020 assembly run. Once in office, Mamdani became an integral part of NYC-DSA's socialists in office committee, designed to facilitate chapter communications with elected socialists. Today, many of his staffers are chapter leaders. And when launching his mayoral campaign, 'he said that he would not run at all if he did not receive our endorsement,' the NYC-DSA organizer Michael Thomas Carter wrote in Drop Site News. 'While the coalition that coalesced around his campaign was much broader than NYC-DSA, in this very direct sense our organization is responsible for his mayoral run,' he wrote. This commitment to the chapter has been a throughline in Mamdani's career, said Gordillo. 'He's been really tested to learn how to exercise leadership while also being accountable to a base, because he's done that in DSA pretty often,' he said. Mamdani has championed some NYC-DSA campaigning efforts he did not pioneer, such as the successful fight for a bill to expand publicly owned renewable energy, which Gordillo helmed. But he has been a leader on other initiatives, such as the 'Not on Our Dime!' bill, which aims to pressure Israel to follow international law and on which he was the lead sponsor. (Ending US support for Israel's military is a key issue for DSA, whose national organization ended its support for Ocasio-Cortez and former New York congressman Jamaal Bowman over insufficient support for the issue.) That back-and-forth has continued through the mayoral campaign, with the chapter's political operatives also helping him make connections and shape his platform. 'He met with our Labor Working Group a lot to learn more about what were the top demands for different unions where we have a lot of member density,' said Gordillo, who is a union electrician by day. Mamdani won more votes than any other mayoral candidate in New York City primary election history. Brisport said that's a testament not only to the power of NYC-DSA's organizational skills, but also to the popularity of their political values. 'Clearly there is something in the air that is shifting, because open socialists are running for office and winning, showing that our ideas are good, workable things that people actually need,' he said. Mamdani's embrace of the democratic socialist label has been a boon for NYC-DSA, with about 4,000 members joining since he launched his mayoral campaign. It will also be a test for the chapter and for American socialism. 'Zohran ran as an open democratic socialist and the billionaire class, the most powerful forces in the world and in the city, are aligning against him,' Gordillo said. 'They will be finding every moment to amplify anything that they can say is a mistake or a failure, and because he ran in a way that was so tied to the movement, I think that any of his shortcomings will also be attributed to us.' The chapter is now preparing to mobilize volunteers around the general election, but also organizing to support Mamdani's key policies like a proposal to increase taxes on the rich. The organization is prepared to hold Mamdani accountable to socialist values, but also to communicate his successes to the public, said Gordillo. 'We will make sure that the billionaire class and corporate interests can't just fearmonger about him, or hide it when he fulfills his campaign promises,' he said. 'The fate of the left in New York rests on the success of the Mamdani administration, so ensuring that there is a successful mayoralty is going to have to become our top priority.'
