The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a $656 million judgment against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, reviving a lawsuit filed by Americans who say they were killed or wounded in attacks in Israel. The reinstatement on April 5 followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last June that upheld a 2019 law Congress enacted to allow those victims’ cases to move forward in U.S. courts, according to the appeals court’s ruling.
The case returns to the posture it held after an earlier verdict, after a prior round of appeals had thrown out the judgment about a decade earlier. Judges had rejected the earlier verdict on jurisdictional grounds, stating that U.S. courts could not consider lawsuits brought against foreign groups over overseas attacks that were not aimed at the United States.
In its March 30 decision that led to the reinstatement, the appeals court said it was reinstating the judgment for the plaintiffs. “We conclude that the original judgment for the plaintiffs should be reinstated. That conclusion is consistent with the plain import of the Supreme Court’s decision,” the judges wrote, according to the report of the decision.
The lawsuit was brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a 1992 law intended to open U.S. courts to victims of international terror attacks. The victims and their families asserted that Palestinian agents either were involved in the attacks or incited them, while the Palestinians argued that the cases should not be allowed to proceed in American courts.
After the reinstatement, attorney Kent Yalowitz said the plaintiffs’ families were relieved the court reinstated the judgment without requiring a new trial. “Our client families are very relieved that the court has reinstated the judgment without requiring a new trial. They have been waiting for a very long time for justice to be done,” he said in an email, as reported.
Another plaintiffs’ attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, said she was pleased with the ruling after what she characterized as 22 years of litigation. Emails seeking comment were sent to the attorneys for the defendants on Sunday, according to the report.
While the reinstatement revives the judgment, the decision also underscores the way Supreme Court rulings and congressional changes can reshape what U.S. courts are able to hear in suits tied to overseas violence. The appeals court’s reasoning ties the reinstatement to the Supreme Court’s June ruling validating the 2019 statute that provided a pathway for the claims to proceed.
For the families involved, the decision marks a significant procedural step after years in which courts had grappled with questions about whether the claims could be adjudicated in the United States. The reinstatement means the case continues at a stage that had been disrupted when an earlier appeals decision set aside the judgment.