[20200528]LSB10481_最高法院允许在恐怖主义案件中对苏丹进行追溯性惩罚性赔偿.pdf

CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Supreme Court Permits Retroactive Punitive Damages Against Sudan in Terrorism Cases May 28, 2020 More than two decades after the U.S. embassies bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, some plaintiffs who alleged that Sudanese support of Al Qaeda contributed to the attacks have won the opportunity to obtain punitive damages against the government of Sudan. The Supreme Court decided 8-0 (with no participation by Justice Kavanaugh) in Opati v. Republic of Sudan that Congress intended to make punitive damages available on a retroactive basis when it updated the terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in 2008. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit) had decided otherwise, invalidating $4.3 billion in punitive damages and halving the Opati plaintiffs award for the embassy bombings. Under Opati, the D.C. Circuit is to reinstate some or all of those punitive damages. State-Sponsored Terrorism Exception to the FSIA Under the FSIA, foreign states are immune from jurisdiction in U.S. courts unless an exception exists. Congress amended the FSIA in 1996 to pro