By Jan Wolfe
WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court further limited the reach of a federal law used to hold corporations liable for human rights abuses committed abroad, as it issued a ruling on Tuesday ending a lawsuit by members of the Falun Gong movement accusing Cisco Systems of facilitating religious persecution in China.
The justices, in a 6-3 ruling, reversed a lower court's decision that had breathed new life into the 2011 lawsuit, which was brought under the Alien Tort Statute of 1789. The suit had alleged that Cisco knowingly developed technology that allowed China's government to surveil and persecute Falun Gong members.
The Alien Tort Statute had been dormant for nearly two centuries before lawyers began using it in the 1980s to bring international human rights cases in U.S. courts. The Cisco case posed the question of whether the law creates liability for corporations that "aid and abet" human rights abuses, a form of what is called accomplice liability.
Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who authored the decision, said that a lower court erred in finding that aiding-and-abetting liability exists under the Alien Tort Statute, or ATS, for Cisco's disputed conduct.
WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court further limited the reach of a federal law used to hold corporations liable for human rights abuses committed abroad, as it issued a ruling on Tuesday ending a lawsuit by members of the Falun Gong movement accusing Cisco Systems of facilitating religious persecution in China.
The justices, in a 6-3 ruling, reversed a lower court's decision that had breathed new life into the 2011 lawsuit, which was brought under the Alien Tort Statute of 1789. The suit had alleged that Cisco knowingly developed technology that allowed China's government to surveil and persecute Falun Gong members.
The Alien Tort Statute had been dormant for nearly two centuries before lawyers began using it in the 1980s to bring international human rights cases in U.S. courts. The Cisco case posed the question of whether the law creates liability for corporations that "aid and abet" human rights abuses, a form of what is called accomplice liability.
Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who authored the decision, said that a lower court erred in finding that aiding-and-abetting liability exists under the Alien Tort Statute, or ATS, for Cisco's disputed conduct.
3 months ago
