Over the past few years, the U.S. government has been experimenting with using economic sanctions to shut up voices that annoy it. In 2021, the Biden administration seized the websites of several news outlets it accused of being Iranian propagandists (including some that turned out to be Iranian dissident outlets). And in 2025, the Trump administration sanctioned U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for recommending prosecutions of companies that benefit from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Albanese of waging "lawfare that targets U.S. and Israeli persons."
On Wednesday, a U.S. federal court blocked the Department of the Treasury from enforcing the sanctions on Albanese, ruling that Albanese's family is "likely to succeed" in their First Amendment lawsuit against the government. "Albanese has done nothing more than speak! It is undisputed that her recommendations have no binding effect on the [International Criminal Court's] actions—they are nothing more than her opinion," Judge Richard Leon wrote in the ruling.
