Rubio Defends ICC Sanctions in Federalist Society Speech

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court in a speech to Federalist Society members. He criticized the court’s legitimacy and its assertion of authority over countries that have not accepted its jurisdiction. The sanctions were imposed partly over the court’s arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Rubio argued that Americans had never consented to the court’s authority. He accused its officials of seeking power over people worldwide while remaining unaccountable themselves, and presented the administration’s sanctions as a response to that assertion of jurisdiction. President Donald Trump’s February 6, 2025 executive order said neither the United States nor Israel was a party to the Rome Statute or a member of the ICC. The order described the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant as baseless. It authorized property blocking and entry restrictions against foreign people determined to have participated in specified ICC actions against protected persons, or to have materially supported those actions. The court issued the two warrants on November 21, 2024, when it also rejected Israel’s jurisdictional challenges. In its statement that day, the ICC said its claimed authority rested on territorial jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories rather than on Israel’s consent.