Justice for Terror Victims: ACLJ Amicus Brief Helps Defeat PLO and Palestinian Authority’s Escape From $655 Million Judgment

The ACLJ fought at the Supreme Court to keep American courts open to victims of terrorism – and this week, that fight paid off.

This week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor declined an emergency request from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian Authority (PA) to pause a $655.5 million judgment owed to American victims of terrorism, clearing the way for enforcement of a verdict more than a decade in the making.

The ACLJ filed a significant amicus brief at the Supreme Court in this litigation, Fuld v. PLO and United States v. PLO, and our brief laid out exactly why the judgment against the PLO and PA should stand.

Our brief traced the legal path Congress built to get here. The Taylor Force Act first targeted the PA’s “pay-to-slay” program, which pays salaries to terrorists and their families as a reward for attacking Americans and Israelis.

When the PA continued that practice anyway, Congress followed up with the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act of 2019 (PSJVTA), making clear that if the PLO and PA kept funding terrorism while operating and fundraising in the United States, that conduct alone would count as consent to being sued in American courts.

The PLO and PA would still get their day in court to defend themselves – they simply could not dodge the courthouse altogether. The Second Circuit tried to let them dodge it anyway, inventing a “reciprocal benefit” requirement found nowhere in Supreme Court precedent: the theory that the PLO and PA first had to receive some benefit from the United States before a court could even claim jurisdiction over them.

Our brief argued this manufactured rule turned personal jurisdiction law on its head and handed terror-financing organizations a legal shield Congress never intended. We reminded the Court that there is nothing unfair about hauling an organization into U.S. court after it has openly admitted, as the PLO and PA did here, that it paid terrorists who killed and injured Americans and intends to keep doing so.

As we put it to the Court, requiring Congress to hand terrorist-supporting organizations a governmental benefit just to secure their cooperation with our justice system is incongruous and has no place in American law.

You can read our full brief and analysis here.

Last June, the Supreme Court agreed with our position and unanimously upheld the PSJVTA as constitutional. Following that ruling, the Second Circuit reinstated the $655.5 million judgment this past March – the same judgment now cleared for enforcement.

The judgment traces back to a wave of shootings and bombings that killed and injured American citizens. A federal jury in New York held the PLO and PA liable. That victory was nearly stripped away when the case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds – until Congress and, ultimately, the Supreme Court stepped in.

The PLO and PA weren’t finished fighting, though. They ran to the Supreme Court asking Justice Sotomayor to freeze the judgment while they pursued further appeals.

Justice Sotomayor was unpersuaded. She denied the stay application without explanation and without referring the matter to the full Court – leaving the judgment intact and enforceable. Monday’s decision is a critical, tangible step toward justice for American families who have waited over a decade for accountability.

The ACLJ will continue monitoring this case and fighting in courts across the country and around the world to ensure that those who fund terrorism against Americans and Israelis cannot hide behind manufactured legal defenses. Justice delayed is not justice denied, and we will not rest until these victims are made whole.

Take action with the ACLJ. Sign our petition: Stop Funding Terrorists at War With Israel.