Last week, together with a coalition of twelve international human rights organizations, we submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Doe v. Cisco Systems, Inc., a case alleging that the U.S. network technology company aided and abetted serious human rights abuses against practitioners of Falun Gong in China. Specifically, Cisco is alleged to have played a key role in designing and implementing China’s “Golden Shield” – an internet surveillance system that is alleged to have been used to collect information about, and facilitate the violent persecution of, practitioners of the Falun Gong religion. 

At issue before the Supreme Court is the question of whether the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) authorize claims against those that aid and abet the types of serious human rights violations at issue in the case. The ATS, which we have used and written about extensively, is a law that enables foreign nationals to bring tort claims in U.S. federal courts for violations of certain universally agreed-upon norms of international law. The TVPA is a law passed in 1991 that allows for claims in U.S. federal courts against individuals who subjected others to torture or extrajudicial killings. The Supreme Court is now considering whether the claims against Cisco Systems and its officials for aiding and abetting torture and other abuses can move forward under these statutes. 

The amicus brief we joined demonstrates that aiding and abetting liability is well-recognized as a general principle of law across jurisdictions and as such, is actionable under the ATS, and for similar reasons, should be actionable under the TVPA in order to fulfill the intent of the statute. Katherine Gallagher of the Center for Constitutional Rights was the lead author and counsel on the brief. 

This is the second time we have submitted an amicus brief with the Center for Constitutional Rights in this case, with the first occurring in January 2016 when the case was before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

You can read the recently filed amicus brief here.