President Joe Biden's Department of Justice petitioned the Supreme Court to uphold a 2019 law that would permit lawsuits filed by victims of terrorism against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to proceed, The Hill reported Tuesday.
The federal Anti-Terrorism Act provides U.S. citizens injured by acts of terrorism a procedure by which to sue for damages. After a series of lower courts dismissals over lack of personal jurisdiction, Congress passed the law in 2019 giving federal courts authority to hear cases brought against the PA and PLO.
The DOJ's petition states "that due-process holding is incorrect and undermines Congress' judgment that the [law] is an important measure to further U.S. interests and protect and compensate U.S. nationals."
One of the cases at issue is that of Israeli-American Ari Fuld, who was killed by a Palestinian terrorist outside a supermarket in Gush Etzion, Israel in 2018. In July, the Fuld family filed a case in the U.S. against the PLO for its role in the murder. The case has already been dismissed twice by a Southern District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
The urging of the DOJ now virtually assures the case will reach the Supreme Court.
"Our goal is to set a precedent that holds the PLO accountable for their [financial] support of terrorism, ensuring justice for victims like Ari Fuld," Fuld family attorney Samuel Silverman told the Jerusalem Post.
The Fuld case was previously dismissed on the grounds that it was "fiction" that the defendants "actually consented to the jurisdiction of the Court" and inferring consent from ‘martyr payments' "that have no direct connection to the United States, let alone litigation in a United States court – would strain the idea of consent beyond its breaking point."
The petition has received rare bipartisan support with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., authorizing an amicus brief on behalf of the House of Representatives.
"If this latest ruling is allowed to stand, American victims of international terrorism will be unlikely to get their day in court, and foreign terrorists will not need to worry about civil judgments draining their resources. Yet these are the exact policy objectives that Congress has consistently attempted to advance," the brief read.
In addition to the House brief, a bipartisan group of Senators has filed a similar motion urging the Supreme Court to take up the case, according to the outlet. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., were among the lawmakers who signed the additional friend-of-the-court brief.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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