A federal court in California has ruled that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza “plausibly” amounts to genocide, but dismissed a case aimed at stopping US military support for Israel as being outside the court’s jurisdiction.
“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the court. This is one of those cases,” the US district court in the northern district of California ruled. “The court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter.
“Yet, as the ICJ [the international court of justice] has found, it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide,” the judge in the case, Jeffrey White, said in his ruling, in a case brought by Palestinian human rights groups and individual Palestinians against President Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, and Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary.
Nobody cares about what a random court in California has to say on the Israel/Palestine conflict. But of course they have to have their say, because they think they are important.
First three words…
I’m still confused what can possibly come from this. Has ‘legislating from the bench’ ever been used to determine foreign policies?
Also ‘plausibly’ is is a term used if something isn’t complety against the rules of law or nature. For example its plausible that someone robbed me yesterday. That says nothing about it happening.