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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE
MATTHEW SMITH and AKILA RADHAKRISHNAN,
Plaintiffs,
v.
DONALD J. TRUMP, in his official capacity as President of the United States, et al.,
Defendants.
No.: 1:25-cv-00158-NT
DEFENDANTS’ MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION
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INTRODUCTION
Executive Order 14,203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court” (the “EO” or the “Order”), which was issued on February 6, 2025, declares a national emergency with respect to the efforts of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) to investigate and prosecute “protected persons,” as defined by the EO, not subject to the ICC’s jurisdiction and provides authority to designate persons for sanctions in connection with those efforts. At present, the restrictions in...
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1) BACKGROUND
On February 6, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14203, re-imposing the ICC sanctions that he initially imposed in 2019 with EO 13928 (EO 13928 was revoked by President Biden). As was the case with the EO 13928 iteration of the ICC sanctions program, the EO provides authority to designate certain persons associated with the ICC, and in both cases the prosecutor of the ICC was designated pursuant to the EO (Fatou Bensouda being the designated prosecutor under EO 13928, and Karim Ahmad Khan being the prosecutor designated pursuant to EO 14203). The ICC prosecutor heads the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP). In 2020, the Open Society Justice Initiative brought a lawsuit against President Trump and others (including Treasury and OFAC) alleging that EO 13928 constituted a First Amendment violation and...