Supreme Court Limits Human Rights Suits Against Corporations

If other kinds of suits are to be permitted under the law, Justice Thomas wrote, the authorization must come from Congress.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan, agreed that the plaintiffs had “failed to allege a domestic application of the Alien Tort Statute.” But she said Justice Thomas was wrong to try to limit the scope of the law to legal theories recognized in 1789.

“The First Congress chose to provide noncitizens a federal forum to seek redress for law-of-nations violations, and it counted on federal courts to facilitate such suits by recognizing causes of action for violations of specific, universal and obligatory norms of international law,” Justice Sotomayor wrote. “I would not abdicate the court’s obligation to follow that legislative directive.”

The court did not directly address a second argument made by the companies, one based on the 2018 decision in Jesner v. Arab Bank. In that case, the court ruled in favor of a bank based in Jordan that had been accused of processing financial transactions through a branch in New York for groups linked to terrorism. The court said foreign corporations may not be sued under the 1789 law, but it left open the question of the status of domestic corporations.

In dissent on Thursday, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said he would have ruled against the companies on that question. “I would hold that if a particular claim may be brought under” the 1789 law “against a natural person who is a United States citizen,” he wrote, “a similar claim may be brought against a domestic corporation.”

Four justices, in concurring opinions in the case, Nestlé USA v. Doe, No. 19-416, agreed with Justice Alito on that point.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/us/supreme-court-human-rights-nestle.html