In a huge victory for victims of human rights abuses, the Supreme Court today affirmed that non-U.S. citizens may sue their abusers in U.S. federal court, under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA).

“This is fabulous news for human rights,” said Rick Herz, Staff Attorney at EarthRights International. “The Supreme Court has validated the last 24 years of consistent case law allowing victims to seek justice in U.S. courts. We are going to continue to seek to hold abusers, and the corporations that assist them, accountable.”

In Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, the Supreme Court concluded that the arbitrary detention of a Mexican national by a DEA agent was not actionable under the Federal Tort Claims Act or the Alien Tort Claims Act. However, the court also made clear that perpetrators of other offenses, if widely accepted as violations of international law, could be held liable. The Court’s opinion allows victims to continue to sue for violations such as torture and genocide, and appears to apply both to government officials, such as police or army officers, and private actors, such as multinational corporations.

Today’s decision effectively ends efforts by the Bush Administration and the business lobby to eviscerate the law in federal court. Opponents of the law had argued that ATCA does not provide a cause of action, and that therefore, the lower courts' unanimous opinion since the landmark Filartiga case in 1980 that ATCA allows victims to sue have been wrongly decided. The Supreme Court rejected that view, in a holding authored by Justice Souter and joined by five other Justices, ruling that the law “…was intended to have practical effect the moment it became law…” and that “common law would provide a cause of action.”

The Court nevertheless made clear, as the lower courts had done, that claims under ATCA are limited to violations of certain widely accepted international norms. It also noted that caution should be exercised to avoid lawsuits that interfere with the Legislative and Executive branches’ managing of foreign affairs.

In the immediate future, the decision means that cases such as Doe v. Unocal, which has been on hold in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, will proceed.

However, Katie Redford of EarthRights International warned that the business lobby is likely to take their battle to get rid of ATCA to Congress. “Big business won’t give up easily," said Redford. “Capitol Hill is the next battleground for defenders of ATCA and the victims of human rights abuses.”