California Constituents File Lawsuit Against California Congress Members Over Military Aid to Israel
CODEPINK News
On Thursday, December 19, CODEPINK Bay Area, alongside a coalition of human rights activists, Palestinian supporters, and anti-war groups, held a press conference and rally in front of the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse to demand an end to U.S. funding of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. During the press conference, the organizers announced an unprecedented class action lawsuit against California Congress members Mike Thompson (D) and Jared Huffman (D).
The lawsuit, filed the same morning, charges the two representatives of misusing their tax-and-spend authority by voting to allocate $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel. This aid has been used to fund Israel’s well-documented ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The legal action is supported by over 500 plaintiffs from ten Northern California counties, representing a diverse group of ethnicities, religious backgrounds, and walks of life.
At the heart of the lawsuit is the claim that Thompson and Huffman ignored overwhelming evidence that the Israeli military was committing acts of genocide against Gaza’s civilian population using U.S.-provided weapons. By supporting such military funding, the congress members have forced their constituents into complicity in these atrocities.
“The moral injuries that I and countless other constituents have suffered due to Representative Huffman’s vote to arm the genocide in Gaza are immeasurable,” said Carol Bloom, one of the plaintiffs from Sonoma County. Another plaintiff, Laurel Krause from Mendocino County, echoed the sentiment, saying, “Over the last 14 months, I have watched elected officials remain completely unresponsive despite the public’s demands to end the genocide.”
Attorney Dean Royer, representing the plaintiffs, emphasized the core demand of the lawsuit: “We’re asking the court to say taxpayer dollars cannot be used to fund genocide.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks both declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as compensation for the plaintiffs’ emotional and moral injuries. In the legal filing, the plaintiffs claim that Thompson and Huffman’s actions were not only unlawful but also harmful to their constituents' sense of justice and ethics.
Leslie Angeline, a CODEPINK activist and one of the plaintiffs, drew attention during the press conference when she broke her 31-day fast in protest of the violence in Gaza. Several other plaintiffs and advocates spoke passionately about their reasons for joining the lawsuit, calling for greater accountability from U.S. lawmakers regarding military aid and its role in murdering innocent people.
The class action lawsuit is a significant challenge to the continued U.S. military aid to Israel, especially amid mounting criticism over the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It was announced on Tuesday that a group of Palestinian families are suing the U.S. State Department for willfully ignoring a U.S. human rights law in order to continue funding and supporting Israeli genocide in Gaza and murder and violence in the illegally Israeli-occupied West Bank.
For more information on the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, and the case, the full document is available here.