US court dismisses appeal challenging military and financial aid for Israel News
IDF Spokesperson's Unit, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
US court dismisses appeal challenging military and financial aid for Israel

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to compel the Biden administration to withdraw military, diplomatic, and financial support from Israel on Monday.

The court ruled that the case was “not justiciable under the political question doctrine.” This doctrine, based on the separation of powers established by the US Constitution, restricts court decisions to legal “cases and controversies,” preventing judicial involvement in political affairs.

The plaintiffs argued that the Biden administration had violated its obligations under the Genocide Convention. They alleged that “the provision of military and other assistance to the Israeli government made the United States complicit in genocide, in violation of the Genocide Convention and its implementing legislation”.

The Genocide Convention is an international legal instrument that was incorporated into US federal law in 1988. The law makes the commission of genocide, as well as the direct and public incitement of genocide a federal crime.

In an ongoing case against the state of Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the court in January found a plausible risk for genocide and ordered Israel “to take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide” against Palestinians.

The case against the Biden administration was dismissed by a federal judge in January on the basis of the political question doctrine preventing court interference in foreign policy. That judge determined that “foreign policy is constitutionally committed to the political branches of government, and disputes over foreign policy are considered nonjusticiable political questions.”

Following dismissal, the case was appealed to the Ninth Circuit. There, a panel of three judges upheld the lower court’s decision that foreign relations are the exclusive purview of the executive branch of government. That court ruled that courts cannot determine the US “strategic approach to a major world conflict,” as “the courts do not chart the national security and geopolitical objectives of the United States.”

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