Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court for seeking the arrest of Israeli leaders.
The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act failed to pass the 60-vote threshold for debate. The vote was 54-45.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said, “While the ICC is targeting Israeli leaders today, it could easily set its sights on Americans – and American soldiers in particular – tomorrow.”
Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) was the only Democrat to vote in support of the bill. “The ICC’s treatment towards Israel and equivocating to Hamas was unacceptable,” he wrote on X last week. “We should absolutely sanction the ICC.”
Following the vote, Fetterman said he was “deeply disappointed.
“My vote follows Israel—not the ICC that equivocated the democratically elected leader of our special ally to the terrorists and rapists of Hamas.”
“The United States and Israel are not parties to the Rome Statute or members of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and therefore the ICC has no legitimacy or jurisdiction over the United States or Israel,” the bill said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, as per The Daily Caller, that while the bill “is one I largely support and would like to see become law,” he believed it was “poorly drafted and deeply problematic.”
“The bill as drafted would enable sanctions against American companies who have contracts to support the ICC’s technology functions,” Schumer claimed.
Earlier this month, the House of Representatives approved the ICC bill 243-140. Forty-five Democrats joined 198 Republicans in supporting the legislation. No Republicans opposed the bill.
