Rubio assails international court in speech to conservative legal group

Marco Rubio's speech to a conservative legal audience is a familiar genre with a sharper edge: the international court as villain, the sovereign nation as hero. His phrasing — 'sterile vision of radical judges,' 'soulless global bureaucrats' — is designed to land with a base that has long viewed international legal institutions with suspicion. But there's a deeper story here about the trajectory of American conservatism's relationship with global governance. It wasn't so long ago that Republican administrations engaged with international tribunals, however selectively. Now, opposition to them has become a litmus test, and speeches like this one are less about policy than about identity. The practical stakes are real: US refusal to cooperate with the International Criminal Court shapes everything from war crimes investigations to diplomatic leverage. But the rhetorical stakes may matter more domestically. Rubio is positioning himself, and his party, as defenders of a particular vision of America — one that answers to no court it didn't build.