POLITICS/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP PEOPLE/NEIL GORSUCH: “The Supreme Court agreed to consider whether corporations can be sued by foreign individuals in U.S. courts for alleged violations of international law, including giving aid to terrorists.
The high court on Monday said it would review an appeal by citizens of Israel and other nations who filed U.S. lawsuits against Jordan-based Arab Bank, alleging it provided financial services to terrorist organizations and terrorist front groups posing as charities.
The plaintiffs are victims who were injured or captured in attacks, or family members of victims who were injured or killed. They are seeking damages for attacks that took place in the West Bank and Gaza during a 10-year span beginning in 1995. They say the case has connections to the U.S. because Arab Bank operated a branch in New York that was accused of knowingly processing transactions in aid of terrorists.
The victims brought claims under the federal Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law passed by the first U.S. Congress. The law allows foreign citizens to file U.S. lawsuits based on alleged violations of ‘the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.’
A federal appeals court, however, ruled in 2015 that the bank couldn’t be sued because corporations can’t be held liable under the statute.
The Supreme Court will review that ruling.”
–Brent Kendall, “Supreme Court to Consider Corporate Liability in U.S. for Violating International Law,” The Wall Street Journal online, April 3, 2017