Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Friday that self-appointed international courts claiming jurisdiction over Americans represent the same distant, unrepresentative power the Founders fought — and he delivered a blunt message to those courts about what their rulings are worth.
Speaking at the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention, Rubio called the International Criminal Court a "fake court" and accused the "global elite" of weaponizing international law to advance their own interests under the pretense of universal principles. The stakes are direct: these bodies claim the power to investigate, prosecute, and jail American citizens under rules the country never consented to, while answering to no one.
"For this global elite, international law is not a neutral body of rules; international law is an instrument, an instrument to advance their interests under the pretense of universal principles," Rubio said, according to the Post Millennial.
The secretary reached back more than 2,000 years for his sharpest line. Citing the Roman commander Pompey's dismissal of city charters against his legions, Rubio delivered a warning to the ICC: "Stop quoting laws to men with swords." The line drew laughter, and Rubio joked it wasn't politically correct, the Daily Caller reported.
The ICC claims authority to supersede the laws and constitutions of sovereign states — even those, like the United States, that never signed up. Washington signed the treaty creating the court but never ratified it, leaving the U.S. outside its jurisdiction alongside Israel, Russia, and China. The court fields no police force and depends on member nations to execute its warrants — something the United States will not be doing. The Trump administration slapped sweeping sanctions on the ICC in October as part of a campaign to dismantle the tribunal.
Rubio tied the foreign fight to the domestic one. The same activist courts that govern by injunction at home, twisting law to fit their preferences, have their mirror in international bodies that demand nations surrender control of their borders and outsource immigration law to unelected tribunals. "They lecture us on the importance of sovereignty even as they demand that nations surrender control of their borders," he said.
He pointed to the barrage of claims about America's alleged violations of international rules — on foreign policy, border enforcement, and what global bureaucrats call "systemic racism." He cited specific moves that drew ICC objections: U.S. military strikes on cartel boats in the Caribbean and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, the Daily Caller reported.
"To submit to the sterile vision of radical judges or soulless global bureaucrats would be to betray who we are, to betray ourselves," Rubio stated in closing.
The Daily Caller noted this was Rubio's first major domestic speech since Republicans absorbed heavy losses in this month's midterm elections, and the appearance fed new speculation about a 2028 presidential bid. The crowd gave him a standing ovation.
The question left hanging: whether the swords Rubio invoked remain sharp enough to keep the bureaucrats at bay, or whether the global governance apparatus has already embedded itself too deep to cut out.
