Plaintiff Tarik Kanaana says the lawsuit “has given people something to rally behind and a renewed sense of hope.”
On December 19, more than 500 federal taxpayers from 10 northern California counties filed an unprecedented class-action lawsuit against their congressional representatives. Seth Donnelly et. al. v. Mike Thompson, and Jared Huffman charges that the defendants — two Democratic congressmembers — illegally abused their tax and spend authority on April 20, 2024, when they voted for the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which authorized $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, alleges that Thompson and Huffman violated the U.S. Constitution, the Genocide Convention and several U.S. laws.
“I am a Palestinian Lebanese American, and I am suing my California congressman, Mike Thompson, for misusing my federal tax dollars and supporting the genocide in Gaza,” Maria Barakat, a class representative, told Truthout. “As a Palestinian and a person of conscience, Thompson has forced me to be complicit in the murder and genocide of my own people.”
Taxpayers who brought the suit come from a wide variety of backgrounds. They include young people, the elderly, educators, health care workers, Jewish and Palestinian Americans, and others. Members of the class are defined as: “All persons who were federal taxpayers during the year 2024 who reside within the federal Second or Fourth Congressional District of California and have suffered moral and emotional/psychic injury from being made complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Congress Can Tax Only for the Common Defense and General Welfare
Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution establishes Congress’s power to lay and collect taxes only for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. When taxes are collected and allocated for unlawful purposes, the general welfare is not served.
The complaint — the charging document in the lawsuit — notes that the $26.38 billion for which the defendants voted includes $3.5 billion for the procurement of advanced weapons systems, defense articles (items or technical data designed for a missile, satellite or other military use) and defense services; $1 billion for the production and development of artillery and critical munitions; and $4.4 billion to replenish defense articles and defense services provided to Israel.
As this article goes to press, more than 45,500 Palestinian people have been killed by Israel’s genocidal campaign using weapons provided by the U.S. government.
In Donnelly v. Thompson, the taxpayers cite violations of the Genocide Convention, which the U.S. has ratified, and the Genocide Convention Implementation Act, which establishes the crime of “complicity in genocide.” Customary international law, which is part of federal common and statutory law, also prohibits complicity in genocide.
The complaint alleges violation of the Leahy Law, which prohibits aid to foreign security forces that have committed a gross violation of human rights. In addition, it charges that the congressmembers violated the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act, which prohibit U.S. assistance to countries whose governments engage in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights. Lastly, the complaint alleges violation of the Conventional Arms Transfer policy, which prohibits U.S. weapons transfers if they risk facilitating human rights violations.
Class Members Asked Their Congressmembers to Halt Military Aid to Israel
Many class members repeatedly contacted their representatives, Thompson and Huffman, urging them not to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza — to no avail. “We have called and written our representatives for over a year begging them to halt military aid to Israel,” Barakat told Truthout. “Some of us call them every single day.” But both congressmembers voted for military assistance to Israel, knowing that it was committing genocide, the complaint asserts.
“We are inspired by the lawsuit Defense for Children International — Palestine v. Biden, filed in November 2023, that attempted to hold the Biden administration legally accountable for direct involvement in the genocide in Gaza,” class representative and lead plaintiff Seth Donnelly told Truthout. In the case against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a federal district judge in Oakland, California, found that Israel’s conduct in Gaza amounts to a plausible case of genocide.
Although the Biden case was dismissed based on the “political question” doctrine, which reserves foreign policy decisions to the political branches of government (executive and legislative), not the judiciary, the two lawsuits raise different issues, attorney Dean Royer, who filed Donnelly v. Thompson, wrote in an email to Truthout: This case “is premised on taxpayers having their constitutional rights violated when their [c]ongressional representatives voted in favor of military aid to Israel despite knowing Israel was committing genocide and would continue to do so with the aid.”
The complaint in Donnelly v. Thompson cited the International Court of Justice’s January 26 ruling that some of Israel’s actions in Gaza appeared to constitute genocide. On March 24, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, published a comprehensive report which concluded that the Israeli government had unequivocally crossed the “threshold” and was actively committing genocide in Gaza. Her findings were also cited in the taxpayers’ lawsuit.
Taxpayers Described Moral Injuries They Suffered From the Vote to Arm Genocide
The taxpayers are asking the district court to certify the proposed class and declare that defendants Thompson and Huffman violated the Constitution’s tax and spend authority as well as federal statutes when they voted for the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. They also ask the court to restrain the defendants from providing further military aid to Israel. And they are requesting compensatory damages for the emotional trauma, mental health problems and depression they have suffered as a result of the ongoing genocide.
Carol Bloom, a class member from Sonoma County, stated in a release for the Institute for Public Accuracy, “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.”
In media statements, class representatives described the emotional and moral injuries they suffer as a result of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians:
“I have witnessed the destruction of parts of my history and parts of the beautiful culture which I am a product of. I have witnessed the bombing of hospitals and schools, churches, mosques, playgrounds and seaside promenades. I have seen the desecration of burial grounds and have seen the remains of forbearers being unearthed so that refugees have nothing to return to,” Tarik Kanaana, a Palestinian American who lives in Santa Rosa, said in the statement. “The United States is not only allowing this genocide to happen; but is an active participant in it.”
Pamela Brown from Humboldt County said, “My life emotionally and intellectually fell apart in October 2023. As I witnessed and read about the horror inflicted on innocent children, women, and men in Gaza over days, then weeks, then months, and now more than a year, I continued down a dark hole that my friends began to remark on. The distress and despondency I experience have been profound, unlike any other time in my life.”
“I feel I’ve been living in a traumatized state for over a year. I cry every day, multiple times a day, my heart is beyond broken, it’s shattered. I wake up each morning worrying about the genocide that is happening in Gaza, knowing that if it wasn’t for my government’s partnership with the Israeli government, this couldn’t continue,” said Leslie Angeline from Marin County. She tried in vain to meet with Rep. Jared Huffman on the 25th day of her hunger strike/fast, which she ended when the lawsuit was filed on December 19, after 31 days.
“It is literally breaking my heart day by day, night by night, to be complicit in this ‘collective punishment’ of Palestinians of both Gaza and The West Bank,” said Francesca Ciancutti from Mendocino County.
Linda Helland, also from Mendocino County, said, “The psychological distress and moral injury I experience from being forced to pay for genocide has caused me irreparable harm, manifested in depression, anxiety, distractions from work, lack of joy in daily activities, and inability to sleep peacefully.”
Helland, a public health professional, described images seen on phones every day:
Children shot in the head by Israeli snipers; Palestinian women who are too hungry and thirsty to breastfeed their babies because Israel uses starvation as a weapon; rotting babies in incubators after the Israeli military took over the hospital and turned off the electricity; teenagers burned to death still hooked up to their hospital IVs when the Israeli military bombed the hospital; toddlers crushed when Israel bombs schools; and parents collecting plastic bags of unidentifiable children’s body parts so they’ll have something to bury after Israel bombs refugee shelters.
One Struggle, Many Fronts
The taxpayers are clear-eyed about the challenges the lawsuit faces. But they are resolute.
“We see it quite clearly that there are legal and constitutional limits on what U.S. tax dollars can be used for, and our congressmen have broken the law,” Barakat told Truthout. “Our eyes are wide open about the federal courts. It’s an uphill climb, but we have to act. We are responsible to act.”
“I have no faith that the U.S. government will do what is right, especially after 15 months of … supporting Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, including financing and providing Israel with the political cover it needs,” Kanaana said in an interview with Truthout. “I am sure that the court will find a way to dismiss this case. If, however, it does continue and we get a ruling in our favor, it will have huge ramifications on what the U.S. can do to support Israel. That said, we have already achieved so much of what we set out to do.”
Kanaana added that the lawsuit “has given people something to rally behind and a renewed sense of hope.” Since the genocide started, the taxpayers have “been protesting in the streets, going in front of city councils and other political bodies to convince them to call for a ceasefire, protesting national politicians and university encampments (which were violently suppressed) and anything else we could think of to change our government policies.” However, Kanaana says, the situation in Palestine “is getting much worse.”
“This struggle will take sustained efforts on many fronts, with the lawsuit being a means to shine the spotlight on the role of U.S. tax dollars in the genocide. We anticipate a vigorous effort by the defendants to dismiss the case on various grounds and understand that the legal battle will be challenging but we believe we can ultimately succeed,” attorney Royer told Truthout. “While Congress has great latitude to decide how to spend tax money, the line is crossed when the spending results in complicity in genocide and human rights violations.”
Since the filing of Donnelly v. Thompson on December 19, “we have gotten media attention beyond what we had anticipated locally and nationally,” Kanaana told Truthout. As a result, “people and groups from around the country have been reaching out to us offering us support and, more importantly, to get information on how they can replicate our lawsuit in other areas against other Congress members who have shown support for Israel’s war crimes.”
“If we persuade the court that we are correct, this lawsuit could be replicated throughout the U.S. with other congressional representatives as defendants,” attorney Royer added. “In fact, there is already interest in the case by other constituencies in California and other states.”
Class members are encouraging all taxpayers in Marin, Sonoma, Solano, Napa, Lake, Yolo, Mendocino, Trinity, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties to sign onto the lawsuit.
Taxpayers Against Genocide NorCal, which organized the taxpayers’ lawsuit, will soon be offering a webinar for activists across the U.S. who want to replicate their action. For more information, interested parties can contact classactionagainstgenocide@proton.me.
“This unprecedented lawsuit gives these Congresspersons pause that their constituents, from all 10 counties in northern California, have joined together. Their power is seated in keeping us apart,” Anna Marie Stenberg, a long-time activist and key leader of the coalition, whose family is from Lebanon, told Truthout. “This coalition will also be invaluable over the next four years when the targets are put on immigrants and the LGBTQX communities.”
This article first appeared on Truthout.
