Siegel v. U.S. Dep't of the Treasury
Siegel v. U.S. Dep't of the Treasury
Opinion of the Court
This matter is before the Court on Defendants' Motion to Dismiss, Dkt. 24. Plaintiffs are twenty-eight individuals who object to various actions allegedly taken by Israel or Israeli citizens against Palestinians. They bring this case against the Department of Defense, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of State, and those Departments' Secretaries in their official capacities. Plaintiffs argue that U.S. support-primarily in the form of foreign aid and charitable donations administered or facilitated by Defendants-has helped Israel commit various crimes against Palestinians and that continued aid violates an amalgam of international and domestic laws. They request that the Court "order agency defendants to stop providing any and all financial and military assistance to Israel." Dkt. 2 at 68. For the reasons explained below, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs lack Article III standing. The Court will, accordingly, GRANT Defendants' motion and will dismiss the complaint.
I. BACKGROUND
Because this matter is before the Court on a motion to dismiss, the Court must "accept [Plaintiffs'] well-pleaded factual allegations as true and draw all reasonable inferences from those allegations in ... [P]laintiff[s'] favor." Arpaio v. Obama ,
The nub of Plaintiffs' claim is a "concern[ ] about the fact that ... American aid dollars ... are going to fund" Israel, which they allege is responsible for numerous harms to Palestinians. Dkt. 2 at 23 (Compl. ¶ 19). Primarily, Plaintiffs take issue with the $200 billion they say the United States "ha[s] given to Israel over the last thirty years." Id. at 9. They contend that this money has funded a "Master Plan" to colonize land owned by Palestinians, to "confiscate Palestinian homes," to "rid[ ] the West Bank and Jerusalem of all non-Jews," and to "permanently annex" Jerusalem and what Plaintiffs refer to as the "Occupied Palestinian Territory." Id. at 25, 26, 33 (Compl. ¶¶ 26, 28, 44). They argue that this "Master Plan" is abetted by U.S. "financial and military aid" and that withdrawing this aid would "exert pressure on Israel" to cease its unlawful activity. Id. at 26, 28 (Compl. ¶¶ 29, 33).
Plaintiffs also allege that, beyond this "Master Plan," Defendants' aid to Israel has facilitated "wholesale violence like arson, ethnic cleansing, arms trafficking, [and] the maiming and murdering of Palestinians living near illegal [Israeli] settlements." Id. at 39 (Compl. ¶ 56). The complaint enumerates a litany of offenses the Israeli army has purportedly committed and claims that "[w]ithout the $200 billion provided by [Defendants,] the Israeli armed forces ... would have lacked sufficient funding to ... commit these horrendous war crimes." Id. at 43-46 (Compl. ¶¶ 64-68). Of particular relevance to the pending motion, Plaintiffs allege that U.S. aid has helped support the confiscation of property belonging to Plaintiffs Ali Ali and Linda Kateeb; they allege that they "lost their private property" after it was "seized and [later] occupied by belligerent settlers who are protected by the Israeli army,"
*49which they argue was funded by U.S. aid dollars. Id. at 14-15 (Compl. ¶ 4). This seizure, moreover, was allegedly made "without due process" and "[b]ecause of their national Palestinian heritage." Id. at 14, 17 (Compl. ¶¶ 4, 8).
Finally, Plaintiffs argue that the Defendants' decisions to continue to provide aid to Israel are arbitrary and capricious because they have "adopt[ed] a pro-Israel double standard and ... [have] not adher[ed] to their own regulations which prohibit funding ethnic cleansing, genocide and the de-nationalization of a civilian population." Id. at 59; see also id. at 59-68 (Compl. ¶¶ 84-103). According to Plaintiffs, these actions are "obvious war crimes" that violate the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"),
On the basis of these allegedly illegal actions, Plaintiffs seek an injunction "to stop [Defendants from] providing any and all financial and military assistance to Israel."
II. LEGAL STANDARD
"Article III of the Constitution limits the jurisdiction of federal courts to 'actual cases or controversies between proper litigants.' " Mendoza v. Perez ,
Establishing standing requires a showing of three elements-injury in fact, causation, and redressability-which together constitute the "irreducible constitutional minimum of standing." Lujan ,
III. ANALYSIS
Plaintiffs' theory of standing relies on two distinct groups of injuries. First, twenty-six of those bringing suit assert injuries based on their concerns as taxpayers about U.S. government decisions that purportedly facilitate Israeli actions detrimental to Palestinians. Second, Plaintiffs Kateeb and Ali allege that Israeli settlers took their property with the support of the Israeli military. The Court concludes that the former group lacks standing because it has failed to assert a sufficiently particularized and concrete injury in fact and that the latter group lacks standing because Kateeb and Ali have not adequately alleged either a sufficient causal link between the challenged actions and their injuries or that any deprivation of property they suffered would be redressable by a favorable decision. The Court discusses these defects in turn.
A. Injury in Fact
The only injury the majority of the plaintiffs allege is their shared "concern[ ]" as "American taxpayers" that Defendants' conduct violates various laws, treaties, norms, and policies. These twenty-six plaintiffs argue that they are concerned about how U.S. foreign aid is used; whether that aid violates any "clear congressional mandates," the Constitution, or executive orders; whether the United States is supporting the commission of "war crimes;" and how the aid impacts America's "image ... especially in the Muslim world and the Middle East," thereby potentially "encourag[ing] violent attacks on American citizens travelling or performing military services abroad." Dkt. 2 at 23-24, 27 (Compl. ¶¶ 19, 21, 29). None of these concerns amounts to an Article III injury.
To suffice for standing purposes, an injury must be particularized; that is, the plaintiff must be "affect[ed] ... in a personal and individual way." Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins , --- U.S. ----,
Plaintiffs' arguments to the contrary lack merit. First, they suggest that being "concerned and knowledgeable" about the conduct purportedly facilitated by the government actions at issue and "know[ing]" that the U.S. government is acting in violation of various bodies of law distinguish their claims from those of the typical citizen or taxpayer. Dkt. 2 at 23-24 (Compl. ¶¶ 20-21). Standing to sue, however, "is not measured by the intensity of the litigant's interest or the fervor of his advocacy." Valley Forge Christian Coll. v. Ams. United for Separation of Church & State, Inc. ,
Second, Plaintiffs' concern about the effect U.S. aid has on the country's "image" abroad, see Dkt. 2 at 23 (Compl. ¶ 19), is still-as currently formulated-a generalized grievance about the wisdom of governmental actions or policies. Once again, Plaintiffs' allegations contain no detail about how they have been personally and concretely affected. It is conceivable that, in unique circumstances, an increased risk of harm from attacks abroad might yield a concrete and particularized injury, but the complaint does not come close to alleging such an injury. See
Finally, Plaintiffs argue that they have suffered a cognizable injury because the APA creates a cause of action for those "adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action," Dkt. 25 at 7; see
*52assertion that "there is no other avenue for them to seek relief," Dkt. 25 at 8, add to their claim to standing. As the Supreme Court opined in Clapper v. Amnesty International USA , the contention that "if respondents have no standing to sue, no one would have standing, is not a reason to find standing."
Plaintiffs are on firmer ground, however, in arguing that Ali Ali and Linda Kateeb have suffered an injury in fact. In particular, Plaintiffs allege that both Ali and Kateeb "lost their private property" after it was "seized and [later] occupied by belligerent settlers who are protected by the Israeli army," an army funded in part by U.S. aid dollars. Dkt. 2 at 14-15 (Compl. ¶ 4). This seizure, Plaintiffs say, was made "without due process" and "[b]ecause of their national Palestinian heritage." Id. at 14, 17 (Compl. ¶¶ 4, 8). The deprivation of property, even when that property is held abroad, constitutes a concrete and particularized injury in fact. See Cardenas v. Smith ,
B. Causation and Redressability
Despite having alleged an injury in fact, Ali and Kateeb nevertheless lack standing because the causal link between Defendants' actions in providing or facilitating foreign aid and other assistance to Israel and Plaintiffs' injury is too attenuated. For substantially the same reasons, moreover, Plaintiffs have not carried their burden with respect to redressability. The Court considers these elements together because when, "as in this case, a plaintiff's asserted injury arises from the government's allegedly unlawful" behavior directed at "someone else, ... causation and redressability ordinarily hinge on the response of the regulated (or regulable) third party to the government action or inaction-and perhaps on the response of others as well." Lujan ,
Ali and Kateeb allege that their property was "illegally confiscated and [is] now occupied by belligerent settlers." Dkt. 2 at 23 (Compl. ¶ 20). The settlements in which those persons reside, Plaintiffs assert, were "funded by [U.S.] taxpayers for at least thirty years with million dollar contributions going to U.S. based pro-occupation tax exempt entities." Id. at 15 (Compl. ¶ 4). They argue that the seizure of their property cannot be remedied without an injunction barring Defendants from "providing any and all financial and military assistance to Israel," id. at 68, because the Israeli settlers who confiscated Ali's and Kateeb's property cannot "be evicted from that private property" due to the protection of "Israeli army personnel ... financed by the American taxpayers," id. at 23 (Compl. ¶ 20). In the absence of U.S. aid, those military "personnel would be unable to maintain and support the settlements that encompass Plaintiffs' stolen land." Dkt. 25 at 9-10. Plaintiffs do not allege that the Israeli military or the settlements *53in question are exclusively funded by sources controlled by Defendants, but rather that those sources "augment [the] limited financial resources" of the Israeli army and Israeli settlers. Dkt. 2 at 46 (Compl. ¶¶ 68).
The financial support that Kateeb and Ali reference allegedly stems from both "the U.S. Treasury Department's failure to enforce its own tax-exempt regulations"
The allegations advanced for the first time in this case, which focus on U.S. foreign aid, fare no better. To establish that the purely prospective injunctive relief sought by Plaintiffs would redress their alleged injuries requires some version of the following chain of reasoning: (1) Defendants directly or indirectly distribute aid to the Israeli military or Israeli settlers; (2) those recipients directly or indirectly use that assistance to aid those who actually confiscated Ali's and Kateeb's property; (3) the Israeli military or the settlers would stop assisting those who actually confiscated Ali's and Kateeb's property if Defendants' conduct were enjoined; (4) in the absence of that assistance, those who actually confiscated Ali's and Kateeb's property would find no other source of assistance and would be forced to abandon the confiscated property; and (5) that property would then be returned to Ali and Kateeb. This chain of reasoning is too remote and too speculative for several reasons.
First, the complaint vaguely refers to the "direct and indirect" provision of aid to often-unidentified entities, requiring that the Court speculate about the actual path of the funds, the various intermediate steps, the ultimate recipients, and their relationship to the control of Plaintiffs' property. The complaint also makes no effort to identify the specific source of the *54funds that are allegedly being used to prevent Ali and Kateeb from recovering their property, whether those funds are administered by any of the Defendant agencies, and whether those agencies have any discretion to withhold the funds.
Second, as in Abulhawa , this is not a case in which Defendants confiscated or currently hold Ali's and Kateeb's property. Instead, Plaintiffs allege that third parties assisted (or indirectly assisted) by Defendants were responsible for confiscating the property and that enjoining U.S. aid would mean that "settlers and Israeli army personnel would be unable to maintain and support the settlements that encompass Plaintiffs' stolen land." Dkt. 25 at 9-10. Plaintiffs' injury and any relief from that injury, accordingly, ultimately flow from the responses of third parties to Defendants' actions. Such "reliance on the anticipated action[s] of unrelated third parties makes it considerably harder to show the causation required to support standing." Arpaio ,
Third, Plaintiffs' allegation that "the Israeli settlements are completely dependent for their survival and growth on funds received from the Defendant agencies," Dkt. 25 at 8, is too conclusory to sustain standing, and it is at odds with Plaintiffs' own allegations. Most notably, Plaintiffs describe two sources of assistance as contributing to the deprivation of their property: direct aid from the U.S. government and contributions from private individuals (made either directly or through charitable organizations). Although Plaintiffs at times state that the seizure of their property could not continue in the absence of direct government support, they elsewhere allege that a key ingredient in aggression against Palestinians, including Ali and Kateeb, has in fact been private contributions that support the efforts of "violent militia members" to do things like "acquire Kalashnikovs, sniper scopes, percussion grenades, guard dogs, [and] night vision goggles." Dkt. 2 at 65 (Compl. ¶ 97). Plaintiffs' own allegations thus contradict the notion that the deprivation of Ali's and Kateeb's property is "completely dependent" on the government's direct assistance.
*55Fourth, Ali's and Kateeb's alleged injury is the seizure of their property by Israeli settlers, who were allegedly abetted by Israeli military personnel, but they seek only prospective injunctive relief. Thus, to allege standing, they must allege facts-and not merely conclusions-sufficient to establish that the settlements would "likely" be abandoned, and the property would "likely" be returned to Ali and Kateeb, if U.S. aid to Israel were curtailed. See Owner-Operator Indep. Drivers Ass'n, Inc. v. U.S. Dep't of Transp. ,
Plaintiffs ultimately ask the court to "pile conjecture on conjecture," West ,
CONCLUSION
For these reasons, Plaintiffs lack Article III standing. The Court will, accordingly, GRANT Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' complaint, Dkt. 24.
A separate order will issue.
A narrow exception to this rule concerns Establishment Clause challenges to congressional appropriations made under the Taxing and Spending Clause, see Flast v. Cohen ,
Plaintiffs at various times describe this failure as both the "approv[al] and allow[ance] [of] $2 billion in illegal tax deductions to fund belligerent settlers and Israeli army personnel on an annual basis," see, e.g. , Dkt. 2 at 65 (Compl. ¶ 97), and the Department's purported decision not to enforce its regulations regarding what charitable organizations should be tax-exempt, see, e.g. , id. at 13 (Compl. ¶ 1). The Court's reasoning in Abulhawa v. U.S. Dep't of the Treasury ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Richard SIEGEL v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF the TREASURY
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published