On October 7, the Center for Constitutional Rights endorsed an amended and expanded legal complaint filed by Taxpayers Against Genocide, the National Lawyers Guild International Committee, and Palestinian-American petitioners with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), a principal human rights body of the Organization of American States.

The nearly 200-page complaint asserts that the United States—through the actions of both the Biden and Trump administrations, as well as Congress—has been complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and has violated its binding obligations under the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. This is the only legal complaint in the world that directly takes on the U.S. government as a whole for its leading role in the genocide. 

While the IACHR does not have the authority to criminally prosecute U.S. officials, it can determine that the United States is in violation of its binding obligations under the American Declaration. 

Read the full filing on the Taxpayers Against Genocide website.

Toledo Ohio attorney Terry Lodge stated: "...a handful of Guild lawyers and 4000 members of Taxpayers Against Genocide, a California based group I am very proud to have a hand in representing) have successfully persuaded the Center for Constitutional Rights to join our formal complaint against the Trump Administration in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is the court created by the Organization of American States treaty.

"This is legally very significant because the U.S. legally cannot be charged with Genocide in the International Court of Justice located in the Hague unless the U.S. President formally consents to allow the U.S. government to be charged. However, somebody blew it, because genocide charges CAN be filed against the U.S. in the IACHR. 

"I predict a lot of threats of military aid cutoffs, etc. etc. as the Trump Administration tries to get out of this one. Capped, no doubt, with "We don't recognize that court as having any power over us." But we will proceed to convince the court to enter legal findings that the U.S. is an accomplice with Israel in committing genocide."