U.S. Supreme Court Deals Final Blow to Corporate Human Rights Accountability

The Supreme Court’s decision in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe I sharply narrows the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law that lets foreign nationals bring certain human-rights claims in U.S. courts. In 2004, the Court had left open the possibility that judges could recognize claims based on modern international-law norms meeting a high standard. The new ruling rejects that approach: courts may not invent new ATS causes of action beyond a small set of historically recognized claims, and therefore cannot impose aiding-and-abetting liability for other international-law violations. The justices dismissed the claims against Cisco, effectively ending the statute’s use to pursue technology companies for assisting human-rights abuses unless Congress changes the law.

The case involved 13 Falun Gong practitioners who alleged that Cisco helped build and customize China’s Golden Shield surveillance system to identify members of the religious group. They said information collected through the system was used to facilitate their arrests, detention, torture, forced labor, and coercive efforts to make them renounce their beliefs; one family member allegedly died in custody. A lower court had found the allegations sufficient to let the case proceed, but the Supreme Court’s ruling leaves Cisco beyond reach under the ATS. The decision exposes the limits of corporate human-rights policies and voluntary remedies, and raises concerns that U.S. firms can supply technologies used for repression without civil accountability. Congress is urged to enact a federal law covering companies that knowingly or intentionally assist abuses, whether victims are in the United States or abroad.