Politics

The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it far more difficult for foreigners to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts alleging serious violations of international law. In an opinion by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the justices ruled that a 1789 law, the Alien Tort Statute, on which plaintiffs have relied to bring such cases, only allows lawsuits based on the very small group of claims that Congress likely had in mind when it passed the law. The court also ruled that the Torture Victim Protection Act, a 1991 law that allows suits against individuals who subject others to torture while acting on behalf of a foreign government, does not allow lawsuits for aiding and abetting torture.

Barrett acknowledged “that ATS and TVPA cases frequently involve heinous and inhumane acts” for which “[t]he political branches or other international actors may well provide redress. But,” she wrote, “we decline to distort the statutory text or the Constitution’s allocation of powers to enlist U.S. courts in that project.”