TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Attorney General Ashley Moody, along with a coalition of 20 state attorneys general, is urging the United States Senate to pass the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act (ICC Act). The legislation, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis, aims to deter the International Criminal Court from asserting unlawful authority.
Attorney General Ashley Moody stated, “The International Criminal Court proved that it has no interest in respecting the scope of its authority when it unlawfully sought an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant are merely defending their sovereign nation, Israel, from terrorists, and Israel is not party to the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute. The court’s actions set a dangerous precedent not just for our ally Israel but also for civilian and military leaders in the United States. The Senate must pass this important legislation to ensure that Americans will not be subject to the same unlawful prosecutions.”
In a letter to Senate leaders, Attorney General Moody and the coalition wrote: “On May 20, 2024, Karim A.A. Khan, the ICC prosecutor, announced that he was filing applications for arrest warrants against Yahya Sinwar and two other Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Israel since October 7, 2023…But in the same announcement, the ICC prosecutor also stated that he was filing applications for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. He preposterously claimed that since October 8, 2023, Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against what he called the ‘State of Palestine,’ … The sole basis for the arrest warrants is the Rome Statute, which is the international treaty that established the International Criminal Court.”
The attorneys general continued: “Besides implying a false equivalence between Hamas’s atrocities and the operations of the Israel Defense Forces, the ICC prosecutor’s effort to obtain arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant also lacks any proper legal basis under international law. To start with, there is no ‘State of Palestine’… But most obviously, Israel is a sovereign state that is not party to the Rome Statute and has not consented to be bound by it…The ICC prosecutor’s action constitutes an unjustified assertion of new expansive authority to prosecute any nation’s civilian and military officials regardless of whether those nations have consented to it.”
The legislation seeks swift action to deter individuals involved with furthering efforts by imposing sanctions on any foreign person who engages in or assists with illegitimate prosecutorial actions by the court. This includes investigating or prosecuting American citizens or officials without U.S. consent.
Attorney General Moody's letter was co-signed by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin as well as attorneys general from Alaska, Georgia, Indiana Iowa Kentucky Louisiana Missouri Montana Nebraska New Hampshire Oklahoma South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia West Virginia.