NIAC Action v. Donald J. Trump

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BREAKING: Iranian American Families Join NIAC Action to Sue Trump Over Unauthorized War With Iran

Iranian-American plaintiffs detail devastating impact of the ongoing U.S. war on their families in Iran as NIAC Action asks a federal court to declare the war unconstitutional and unauthorized.

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, attorneys Alan B. Morrison and Bruce Fein filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the National Iranian American Council Action (NIAC Action) challenging President Donald Trump’s ongoing war against Iran, arguing that the President’s war is unconstitutional, and seeking declaratory relief.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawsuit asks the court to declare that the President’s continuing military campaign against Iran violates the Constitution’s Declare War Clause.

The case is brought by National Iranian American Council Action, on behalf of its members whose families have been injured, displaced, economically devastated and are in continuing mortal danger as a result of a war that was never lawfully authorized.

Among them is Nima Dilmaghani, whose cousin was injured when the company warehouse where she worked was bombed. They suffered a broken leg, serious damage to their eardrums and the loss of their index finger, which surgeons reattached but which has lost motion. Approximately ten of her coworkers were killed and approximately ten more were injured. In a separate bombing, their apartment was destroyed while they were away at work. They are now working two jobs to survive.

Other NIAC Action members have detailed similar stories. The lawsuit establishes that these are concrete and preventable harms, and that an end to the unconstitutional war would provide them relief.

“No President should have the power to take this country into an indefinite war by himself,” said NIAC Action President Jamal Abdi. “Congress never authorized this war. Yet Iranian families are being bombed, American service members have been killed, and communities on both sides are being forced to bear the consequences. This lawsuit asks a fundamental question: can one person decide, on his own, to keep an entire nation at war?”

Other NIAC Action members participating in the case describe families in Tehran whose homes have been damaged by nearby strikes, children traumatized by explosions, and relatives repeatedly losing access to electricity and water.

Alan Band, a U.S. Army veteran and NIAC Action member who previously lived and taught English in Iran, has family in northern Tehran who have felt buildings and windows shake from nearby explosions and experienced repeated interruptions to water and electricity.

Parveen Esmaeilzadeh’s mother-in-law experienced strikes so close to her Tehran apartment that the building’s foundation cracked. Her young nieces and nephews witnessed the blasts and have experienced severe trauma, according to the complaint.

The complaint establishes that President Trump initiated the war on February 28, 2026, without a declaration of war or other congressional authorization and that the war has continued, including repeated heavy bombardments and a naval blockade, despite this lack of authorization and the passage by both chambers of Congress of an explicit directive to terminate unauthorized hostilities against Iran. 

The Constitution assigns Congress the power to declare war, not the President. NIAC Action’s lawsuit asks the courts to defend this core Constitutional protection amid the direct assault on it posed by the unconstitutional Iran war.

The complaint seeks a declaratory judgment that the President is unconstitutionally waging an indefinite war against Iran.

“The Constitution does not permit a President to wage war indefinitely and ask Congress for permission later,” said attorney Alan B. Morrison. “Congress never authorized this war, yet months later the bombing and blockade continued. We are asking the Court to enforce the constitutional line between the President’s authority as Commander in Chief and Congress’s exclusive authority to take the country to war.”

“President Trump has spent months waging a war that Congress never authorized, while insisting that changing the terminology somehow changes the constitutional question,” said attorney Bruce Fein. “Calling a war a ‘military operation’ or an ‘excursion’ does not erase the Declare War Clause. The question before the Court is whether the President can continue these hostilities without the authorization the Constitution requires.”

For Iranian-American families represented in the case, the constitutional dispute has immediate consequences.

“When I learned that my cousin had been trapped under the rubble, that they had lost their home and suffered such serious injuries, I felt completely helpless,” said NIAC Action member Nima Dilmaghani. “They survived, but the people they worked alongside did not. Now every new strike brings the fear that something else will happen to them or someone else I love. It is unbearable to watch your family live through this from thousands of miles away and know there is nothing you can do to keep them safe.”