Supreme Court Closes the Door on the Alien Tort Statute
Editor’s Note: This article also appears in Just Security. Earlier this week, June 23, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe. Writing for a six-member majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett held that federal courts may not hear human rights claims under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), effectively overruling…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Decides Cisco and Cimex
Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down decisions in two significant transnational litigation cases. In Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe, the Court held that federal courts may not recognize any new causes of action under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), “clos[ing] the door” on human rights litigation under the ATS and effectively overruling Sosa…
Continue ReadingDistrict Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge to TVPA
On June 9, 2026, in Boniface v. Viliena, Judge Allison D. Burroughs (District of Massachusetts) rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), holding that the act applies extraterritorially to torture and extrajudicial killing between aliens and that Congress had authority to pass the act under the Offenses Clause of…
Continue ReadingThe Oral Argument in Cisco
Editor’s Note: This article also appears in Just Security. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe, a case testing whether claims for aiding and abetting human rights violations may be brought in federal court under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). The…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Grants Cert in Cisco
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted cert in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe I to address two questions: (1) whether claims for aiding and abetting human rights violations can be brought under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS); and (2) whether such claims can be brought under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). I have discussed…
Continue ReadingSolicitor General Recommends Granting Cert in Cisco
In Doe v. Cisco Systems Inc. (2023), the Ninth Circuit held that claims for aiding and abetting human rights violations could be brought under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) against Cisco Systems and under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) against Cisco’s former CEO. The plaintiffs allege that Cisco designed, built, and maintained a surveillance…
Continue ReadingFirst Circuit Remands Constitutionality of the TVPA to District Court
In Boniface v. Viliena, a Massachusetts jury found a former Haitian mayor liable under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) for extrajudicial killing, attempted extrajudicial killing, and torture, awarding the three plaintiffs $15.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. On appeal to the First Circuit, the defendant’s principal arguments were (1) that the TVPA does…
Continue ReadingFifth Circuit Holds that TPVA Does Not Abrogate Foreign Official Immunity
The Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) creates a civil cause of action for torture and extrajudicial killing done under color of foreign law. In Does 1-5 v. Obiano, the widows of five men killed by the Nigerian military during peaceful rallies for Biafran independence sued Willie Obiano, the former governor of the state where the…
Continue ReadingFirst Circuit Argument Weighs Constitutionality of TVPA
Last month, the First Circuit (Judge Lara Montecalvo, presiding, with retired Justice Stephen Breyer and Senior Judge Sandra Lynch) heard oral argument in Boniface v. Viliena. Viliena, a Haitian national who has been a legal permanent resident of the United States since 2008, is challenging a $15.5 million jury award under the Torture Victim Protection…
Continue ReadingConstitutionality of TVPA Challenged in First Circuit
As previously reported at TLB, a Massachusetts jury last year awarded $15.5 million in damages against Jean Morose Viliena for torture and extrajudicial killing under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). Viliena was mayor of a town in Haiti where the three plaintiffs lived. The jury found him responsible for murdering the brother of one…
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