Supreme Court says victims of al-Qaeda bombings entitled to billions in punitive damages
Source: Washington Post
Courts & Law
Supreme Court says victims of al-Qaeda bombings entitled to billions in punitive damages
By Robert Barnes
May 18, 2020 at 12:07 PM EDT
Victims of the 1998 bombings by al-Qaeda of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are entitled to billions of dollars in punitive damages from Sudan, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The bombings killed 224 people and injured thousands, and courts determined long ago that Sudan enabled them by letting Osama bin Laden operate from the country and providing passports to al-Qaeda members.
A judge in Washington awarded more than $10 billion in damages, of which $4.3 billion was for punitive damages.
The question before the court concerned a 2008 amendment to the federal Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects foreign governments from lawsuits but also details the exceptions to such protection. Acts of terrorism are one such exception.
But a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2017 said Congress had not been specific when authorizing retrospective lawsuits that punitive damages were allowed. (1)
In a unanimous decision written by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the Supreme Court disagreed. (Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh recused himself, presumably because he had been involved with the case while on the D.C. Circuit.)
{snip}
The case is Opati v. Sudan.
(1) https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1268_c07d.pdf
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-says-victims-of-al-qaeda-bombings-entitled-to-billions-in-punitive-damages/2020/05/18/05d99778-9909-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html
Supreme Court says victims of al-Qaeda bombings entitled to billions in punitive damages
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can the employees of the United and American airlines become part of this lawsuit.........after all a lot of us / them lost our jobs.........................
