Supreme Court allows victims of terrorist attacks to sue the Palestinian Authority
Source: CNN
The Supreme Court on Friday said that the families of victims of terrorist attacks in Israel may sue the Palestinian Authority in a decision that will likely make it easier for victims of other overseas attacks with ties to Palestinian groups to seek damages in US courts.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the court and the vote was unanimous.
“We have also recognized the national government’s interest in holding accountable those who perpetrate an ‘act of violence against’ US nationals—who, even when physically outside our borders, remain ‘under the particular protection’ of American law,” Roberts wrote. “So too the national government’s corresponding authority to make ‘the killing of an American abroad’ punishable as a federal offense ‘that can be prosecuted in (US) courts.”
At issue are a series of deadly attacks inside Israel that date back to the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. The question for the Supreme Court was whether Congress had the authority to subject the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority to the jurisdiction of federal courts, which would allow the victims of those attacks to sue for damages.
One of those victims, Ari Fuld, an American citizen and the named plaintiff in the case before the Supreme Court, was stabbed in 2018 hours after the chairman of the PLO claimed the Israeli government wanted to establish Jewish prayer zones inside one of Islam’s holiest sites, according to court records. A federal court in 2015 awarded victims more than $650 million under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, which permits Americans to sue for damages caused by terrorism.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/20/politics/supreme-court-allows-victims-of-terrorist-attacks-to-sue-the-palestinian-authority
Unanimous ruling.
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