More than 500 federal taxpayers across 10 Northern California counties have filed an unprecedented class action lawsuit against their congressional representatives, Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson, charging that they illegally abused their tax-and-spend authority when voting to allocate $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel on April 20, 2024. By doing so, the lawsuit alleges, they violated the U.S. Constitution, the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, and U.S. federal laws.
In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal district court in San Francisco, the plaintiffs say that Huffman and Thompson supported the military aid despite overwhelming evidence that the Israeli military was carrying out genocide in Gaza with U.S.-provided weapons and munitions.
The plaintiffs are represented by Szeto-Wong Law. The complete lawsuit document is here.
The hundreds of class members from all 10 counties are people from a wide variety of backgrounds, including the young and the elderly, educators and healthcare workers, Jewish and Palestinian Americans, and many more. They shared extensive and well-documented efforts prior to the April 20 vote to appeal to Huffman and Thompson to stop funding and arming Israel.
In the words of Laurel Krause, a class member from Mendocino County, “Over the last 14 months I have watched elected officials remain completely unresponsive despite the public’s demands to end the genocide.”
By abusing their tax-and-spend authority, the plaintiffs contend, Huffman and Thompson have illegally forced their constituents into being complicit in genocide. This has caused extensive “moral injury” and other forms of harm to members of the class. Carol Bloom, a class member from Sonoma County, stated: “The moral injuries that I and countless other constituents of Representative Huffman have suffered resulting from his vote to arm the genocide in Gaza are immeasurable.”
Available for interviews:
DEAN ROYER, dean@szetowonglaw.com
Royer is an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit against Huffman and Thompson.
SETH DONNELLY, seth007donnelly@gmail.com
Donnelly, a former high school teacher, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit and a key organizer of the class action.