An article published by The Hill this afternoon – “Genocide Lawsuits Against Democrats Foreshadow 2026 Primary Challenges” – says that constituents of many congressmembers will soon be filing suits alleging support for genocide committed by Israel’s military in Gaza.
“Before the winter ends, dozens of members of Congress, mostly Democrats, are likely to be facing class-action lawsuits from constituents accusing them of illegal and immoral complicity in genocide,” the piece says. “Such lawsuits promise to spotlight what many of those lawmakers would much prefer to keep in the shadows.”
The piece was written by Norman Solomon, one of more than 800 plaintiffs who filed suit in federal district court in San Francisco last month against a pair of House Democrats, Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson, who represent districts in Northern California. That lawsuit will be a model for similar suits elsewhere. Organizers of the court action, Taxpayers Against Genocide, are constituents who live in 10 counties north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.
“Like other plaintiffs in the Northern California case, I believe that our lawsuit is on solid ground of justice,” Solomon wrote. “The arms shipments to Israel’s military have violated the Constitution, the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and U.S. federal laws – including the Leahy law, which prohibits the government from ‘using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.’ The namesake of the law, former Sen. Patrick Leahy, says it is being violated.
“In effect, by enabling approval of $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel last spring, 366 members of the House voted to force constituents into being complicit in genocide. No amount of rhetoric can change that overarching reality. And no amount of legalistic arguments will deflect the profound effects that moral revulsion can have on politics.”
The article added: “Legalistic issues of standing and the like avoid far deeper questions. Anyone who contends that the federal court system is immune from an era’s politics might want to ponder the difference between the Supreme Court’s 1896 ‘separate but equal’ ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson and its 1954 ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education.
“Drawing media attention to congressional votes for massive arms shipments to Israel will expose lawmakers who staked out positions opposed by the majority of voters. While the defendants may triumph legally, victory will tend to be Pyrrhic – winning in federal court, but losing in the court of public opinion.”
NORMAN SOLOMON, solomonprogressive@gmail.com
Solomon is IPA’s executive director and national director of RootsAction.org. His latest book is War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.