On a 9-0 vote Friday, the US Supreme Court upheld a federal law that permits American victims of foreign terrorist attacks to sue the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for monetary damages. The decision overturns a lower court’s ruling that had declared the law as unconstitutional.
The legislation in question, the 2019 Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, was intended to amend the 1990 Antiterrorism Act to enable victims or their families to bring claims for compensation in US courts for attacks that have taken place overseas. The Supreme Court held that the law does not offend the due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment, as held in lower courts.
Chief Justice John Roberts, the author of the Court’s opinion, said that it was within the power of the federal government to establish a limited legal avenue for US citizens injured by acts of terror to pursue justice. “It is permissible,” Roberts wrote, “for the federal government to shape a jurisdictional provision. as part of an expansive foreign policy agenda.”
The lawsuit was filed by a number of American families whose loved ones were killed in attacks sponsored allegedly by the PLO and PA between 2002 and 2004. They included plaintiffs who secured a 2015 civil judgment of $655 million as well as relatives of Ari Fuld, who was stabbed to death in the West Bank in 2018.
Their attorney, Kent Yalowitz, hoped the ruling would speed justice: “These families have waited years and years. I hope this decision will bring closure without further extended litigation.”
The decision is a result of a court fight over whether the PA and PLO could be prosecuted in US courts for actions abroad, especially if they engage in certain activities or make terror-related transactions involving Americans.
The Biden administration initiated the appeal, later pursued by Trump’s team. The case was argued before the Court on April 1.
