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The United States has reimposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, just one week after a court order forced her removal from the sanctions list.

Getting into it: A notice posted Wednesday on the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website put Albanese back on its Specially Designated Nationals list under the ICC-related sanctions authority, with no explanation attached. The designation locks up whatever assets she holds in the US, shuts American individuals and companies out of any dealings with her, and turns routine banking and credit card use into a headache for her just about anywhere.

Albanese, an Italian lawyer and human rights advocate, was originally sanctioned in July 2025 by the Trump administration, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio accusing her of waging “political and economic warfare” against the US and Israel. Rubio leaned on her call for the International Criminal Court to go after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (warrants the ICC issued in November 2024).

The administration was also pissed when she sent letters urging ICC investigations of corporations she accused of complicity in Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Rubio has also accused her of having “spewed unabashed antisemitism,” a charge Albanese flatly denies, while she and many international human rights experts maintain that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, a characterization Israel rejects.

The sanctions were temporarily lifted after Albanese’s husband and their US-citizen daughter sued the administration, arguing the penalties were “effectively debanking her” and violating her constitutional rights. Earlier this month, US District Judge Richard Leon granted an injunction, finding the administration had likely used the sanctions to punish constitutionally protected speech. “It is undisputed that her recommendations have no binding effect on the ICC’s actions,” Leon wrote. “They are nothing more than her opinion.” Albanese took a victory lap online, thanking her family and writing, “Together we are One.”

That victory was short-lived. On Friday, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in. A three-judge panel paused Leon’s order with an administrative stay, clearing the way for the government to enforce the designation again while the appeal plays out, though the court stressed the stay was procedural and “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits.”

This all comes as the administration has hit nine ICC judges and prosecutors linked to investigations of US and Israeli forces, a campaign some have criticized as an attack on the entire international legal order, one designed to keep the US and its allies beyond the reach of accountability.