US Supreme Court upholds law on suing Palestinian authorities over attacks
FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen the morning before justices are expected to issue opinions in pending cases, in Washington, U.S., June 14, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Friday a statute passed by Congress to facilitate lawsuits against Palestinian authorities by Americans killed or injured in attacks abroad as plaintiffs pursue monetary damages for violence years ago in Israel and the West Bank.
The 9-0 ruling overturned a lower court's decision that the 2019 law, the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, violated the rights of the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization to due process under the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. government and a group of American victims and their families had appealed the lower court's decision that struck down a provision of the law.
Among the plaintiffs are families who in 2015 won a $655 million judgment in a civil case alleging that the Palestinian organizations were responsible for a series of shootings and bombings around Jerusalem from 2002 to 2004. They also include relatives of Ari Fuld, a Jewish settler in the Israel-occupied West Bank who was fatally stabbed by a Palestinian in 2018.
The ongoing violence involving Israel and the Palestinians served as a backdrop to the case.
U.S. courts for years have grappled over whether they have jurisdiction in cases involving the Palestinian Authority and PLO for actions taken abroad.
Under the language at issue in the 2019 law, the PLO and Palestinian Authority automatically "consent" to jurisdiction if they conduct certain activities in the United States or make payments to people who attack Americans.
New York-based U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ruled in 2022 that the law violated the due process rights of the PLO and Palestinian Authority guaranteed under the Constitution. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.
President Joe Biden's administration initiated the government's appeal, which subsequently was taken up by President Donald Trump's administration. The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on April 1. REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AsiaOne
an hour ago
- AsiaOne
Trump to host Netanyahu at the White House on July 7, US official says, World News
US President Donald Trump plans to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on July 7, a US official said, as the US president pressed for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and the return of remaining hostages. Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is in Washington this week to meet with officials at the White House, Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing on Monday. An Israeli official in Washington also confirmed the meeting next Monday. The two leaders are expected to discuss Iran, Gaza, Syria and other regional challenges, the official added. The visit was first reported by Axios. Israel ramped up its attacks on northern Gaza on Monday, a day after Trump urged an end to the 20-month-old war, posting on social media: "Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back." Israeli strikes killed at least 60 people across Gaza on Monday in some of the heaviest attacks in weeks. Leavitt told reporters the Trump administration was in constant communication with the Israeli government, saying Trump viewed ending the war in Gaza and returning remaining hostages held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas as a top priority. She said it was heartbreaking to see images coming from both Gaza and Israel, but Trump's main priority was securing the release of the remaining hostages. The war began when Hamas fighters stormed in to Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 hostages back to Gaza in a surprise attack that led to Israel's single deadliest day. Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian crisis. [[nid:719633]]
AsiaOne
3 hours ago
- AsiaOne
Trump imposes tougher US policy towards Cuba, World News
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday (June 30) signed a memorandum imposing a hard-line US policy toward communist-run Cuba and reversing measures put in place by former President Joe Biden, the White House said. The directive will enforce a statutory ban on US tourism to Cuba while supporting an economic embargo of the country, the White House said in a fact sheet. While Americans cannot visit Cuba for leisure, travel has been allowed for activities including educational or humanitarian trips. As one of his first acts after taking office in January, Trump, a harsh Cuba critic, revoked the Biden administration's last-minute decision to remove the country from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. He has also partially restricted the entry of people from Cuba. Under Monday's memorandum, Trump renewed a ban on direct or indirect financial transactions with entities controlled by the Cuban military, such as Grupo de Administracion Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), and its affiliates, with exceptions for transactions that advance US policy goals or support the Cuban people. Biden had revoked a 2017 Trump order that restricted financial transactions with some military and government-linked Cuban entities. The new memorandum "enforces the statutory ban on US tourism to Cuba and ensures compliance through regular audits and mandatory record-keeping of all travel-related transactions for at least five years," the White House fact sheet said. It also supports the economic embargo of Cuba and opposes calls in the United Nations and other international forums for its termination, the fact sheet said. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez posted on social media platform X that "the Presidential Memorandum against Cuba made public today by the US government reinforces the aggression and economic blockade that punishes the entire Cuban people and is the main obstacle to our development." "It is a criminal act and a violation of the human rights of an entire nation. The main obstacle to our development," he said. [[nid:718694]]
AsiaOne
4 hours ago
- AsiaOne
Trump signs order lifting sanctions on Syria, White House says, World News
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed on Monday (June 30) an executive order terminating a US sanctions programme on Syria, allowing an end to the country's isolation from the international financial system and building on Washington's pledge to help it rebuild after a devastating civil war. The move will allow the US to maintain sanctions on Syria's ousted former president Bashar al-Assad, his associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, people linked to chemical weapons activities, the Islamic State and ISIS affiliates and proxies for Iran, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a briefing. Assad was toppled in December in a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels and Syria has since taken steps to re-establish international ties. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said Trump's termination of the Syria sanctions programme would "open door of long-awaited reconstruction and development", according to a post by the foreign minister on social media platform X. He said the move would "lift the obstacle" against economic recovery and open the country to the international community. Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Trump met in Riyadh in May where, in a major policy shift, Trump unexpectedly announced he would lift US sanctions on Syria, prompting Washington to significantly ease its measures. Some in Congress are pushing for the measures to be totally repealed, while Europe has announced the end of its economic sanctions regime. "Syria needs to be given a chance, and that's what's happened," US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack told reporters in a briefing call. He described Monday's move as "the culmination of a very tedious, detailed, excruciating process of, how do you unwrap these sanctions." The White House in a fact sheet said the order directs the Secretary of State to review the terrorism designations of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel group that Sharaa led that has roots in al Qaeda, as well as Syria's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. The White House said the administration would continue to monitor Syria's progress on key priorities including "taking concrete steps toward normalizing ties with Israel, addressing foreign terrorists, deporting Palestinian terrorists and banning Palestinian terrorist groups". Layers of US sanctions A Reuters investigation published on Monday revealed the role of Syrian government forces in the killing of more than 1,500 Syrian Alawites over three days of massacres along the country's Mediterranean coast in March. The Trump administration had no comment on the Reuters report. It was not immediately clear if Washington was lifting the sanctions on any of the factions that Reuters found were involved. Syrians hope the easing of sanctions will clear the way for greater engagement by humanitarian organisations working in the country, encouraging foreign investment and trade as it rebuilds. In the aftermath of Trump's announcement in May, the US Treasury Department issued a general license that authorised transactions involving the interim Syrian government as well as the central bank and state-owned enterprises. However, the US has imposed layers of sanctions against Syria, some of which are authorised by legislation, including the Caesar Act. Repealing the measures is necessary for Syria to attract long-term investment without parties fearing the risk of violating US sanctions. "We are now, pursuant to the executive order, going to look at suspension criteria for the Caesar Act," a senior administration official said. Most of the US sanctions on Syria were imposed on Assad's government and key individuals in 2011 after civil war erupted in the country. The dismantling of the US sanctions programme on Syria includes terminating from Tuesday a national emergency declared in 2004 and revoking linked executive orders, according to the order signed on Monday. The executive order also directs additional actions, including some with respect to waivers of export controls and other restrictions, the order read. [[nid:718340]]
