{"id":316297,"date":"2026-05-18T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=316297"},"modified":"2026-05-17T12:48:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:48:05","slug":"judge-blocks-trump-sanctions-on-francesca-albanese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/05\/judge-blocks-trump-sanctions-on-francesca-albanese\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Blocks Trump Sanctions on Francesca Albanese"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, speaks during an event in Madrid, Spain on 23 Jun 2025. (Photo by Marcos del Mazo\/LightRocket via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAlbanese Has Done Nothing More Than Speak!\u201d \u201cThe interim decision by the US judge gives me respite,\u201d said UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. \u201cBut the battle is not over.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

14 May 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0A federal judge in Washington<\/a>, DC on Wednesday temporarily blocked Trump administration<\/a> sanctions<\/a> targeting United Nations<\/a> Palestine<\/a> expert Francesca Albanese<\/a>, ruling that the punitive measures violated her First Amendment<\/a> rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlbanese has done nothing more than speak!\u201d wrote US District Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush<\/a> appointee, in his 26-page decision<\/a> granting a preliminary injunction against the sanctions, which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> announced<\/a> last summer. Rubio said the sanctions, which barred the UN expert from entering the US and banking in the country, were justified because \u201cAlbanese has directly engaged with the International Criminal Court<\/a> (ICC<\/a>) in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States<\/a> or Israel, without the consent of those two countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Leon wrote in his ruling that \u201cit is undisputed that her recommendations have no binding effect on the ICC\u2019s actions\u2014they are nothing more than her opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed in February<\/a> by Albanese\u2019s husband and her daughter, who is a US citizen. They argued the US sanctions against Albanese were \u201ceffectively debanking her and making it nearly impossible to meet the needs of her daily life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albanese is an Italian national who currently lives with family in Tunisia. Leon wrote in his ruling that \u201cwhile the speech at issue occurred outside the United States, defendants have responded by taking action against Albanese\u2019s extensive connections to the United States\u2014including Albanese\u2019s property within the United States and her ability to maintain professional and personal connections within the United States\u2014because of her speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, Albanese (or plaintiffs standing in her shoes) may claim the protection of the First Amendment to challenge defendants\u2019 actions,\u201d the judge continued.<\/p>\n

Albanese, who has vocally condemned Israel\u2019s genocide<\/a> in Gaza<\/a> and the countries<\/a> and private corporations<\/a> that have been complicit, welcomed Leon\u2019s ruling, writing in a social media post<\/a> that \u201cthe interim decision by the US judge gives me respite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the battle is not over,\u201d she added. \u201cICC judges and Palestinian NGOs remain sanctioned with no recourse to justice. The stakes are incredibly high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the US-based Center for International Policy, called<\/a> Leon\u2019s ruling \u201cthe right decision\u201d and said Albanese \u201cwas wrongly sanctioned for constitutionally protected speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWar criminals should be held accountable for their crimes,\u201d Williams wrote on social media<\/a>. \u201cMaking it a crime to say that is what is illegal. We must not sacrifice our rights or the rule of law<\/a> for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Jake Johnson is a staff writer for<\/i> Common Dreams.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original – commondreams.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 May 2026\u00a0–\u00a0\u201cAlbanese Has Done Nothing More Than Speak!\u201d \u201cThe interim decision by the US judge gives me respite,\u201d said UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. \u201cBut the battle is not over.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":316298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[3395,87,865,88,651,427,923,249,4033,70,1025],"class_list":["post-316297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-nations","tag-francesca-albanese","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-justice","tag-palestine","tag-sanctions","tag-trump","tag-un-special-rapporteur-for-the-occupied-palestinian-territories","tag-usa","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316297"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316302,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316297\/revisions\/316302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}