Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority

2012-04-18

Headline: Court limits the Torture Victim Protection Act to natural persons, ruling organizations cannot be sued under the law and making it harder for victims to recover from groups.

Holding: The Court held that the TVPA’s reference to 'individual' covers only natural persons, so the Act does not authorize civil suits against organizations, including nonsovereign groups.

Real World Impact:

Prevents suing organizations under the TVPA for torture or extrajudicial killing.
Makes it harder for victims to collect damages from groups or unknown perpetrators.
Leaves changes to allow organizational liability to Congress, not the courts.

Topics: torture accountability, organizational liability, foreign human rights, civil damages

Summary

Background

Petitioners are relatives of Azzam Rahim, a U.S. citizen who traveled to the West Bank in 1995. Rahim was detained by Palestinian Authority intelligence officers, taken to a Jericho prison, where the complaint alleges he was imprisoned, tortured, and killed. In 2005 the relatives sued the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), claiming torture and extrajudicial killing. Lower courts dismissed the suit, concluding the TVPA’s reference to “an individual” meant only natural persons, and the case reached this Court to resolve a circuit split.

Reasoning

The Court asked whether the TVPA’s word “individual” covers organizations as well as people. It relied on ordinary meaning, statutory context, and how Congress used related words. The opinion noted that dictionaries and other federal statutes typically use “individual” to mean a human being, and that the TVPA repeatedly uses “individual” to refer to victims — a role only a natural person can have. The Court also cited drafting history showing Congress replaced “person” with “individual” to exclude corporations. For these reasons the Court concluded the Act authorizes suits only against natural persons.

Real world impact

Because organizations cannot be sued under the TVPA, victims and relatives may have fewer ways to recover damages from groups accused of torture. The opinion acknowledges this outcome may leave some victims without practical remedies when individual defendants are unknown, judgment proof, or hard to sue. The Court emphasized that any change to allow organizational liability must come from Congress. The Court also left unresolved other factual issues the lower courts did not decide.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Breyer joined the judgment but wrote separately, noting the word “individual” is somewhat ambiguous and that the legislative history helped confirm the Court’s reading.