U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has denied a request by the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to halt enforcement of a $655.5 million damages award. The ruling stems from lawsuits filed by families of Americans killed and injured in attacks targeting Americans in the Jerusalem area of Israel between 2002 and 2004.
Justice Sotomayor turned down the request to suspend a ruling that the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had reinstated in March. Last year, the Supreme Court, in a 9-0 vote, upheld the 2019 'Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act,' which gave plaintiffs the ability to bring such claims.
Palestinian officials had sought a stay of enforcement, arguing that collection of the damages would cause severe financial harm, destabilize public services in the West Bank, and endanger regional security. In their written application, they said payment was intended to come from indirect tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians, which serve as the authority’s primary funding source. They described security, sanitation, and school services in the West Bank as 'hanging by a thread.'
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling last year, the appeals court reinstated the damages judgment that had originally been entered in 2015 by a federal court in New York. The Palestinian side had argued that the judgment became legally void in 2018 when the appeals process was exhausted.
The Supreme Court had declined to hear the case on appeal in 2018. However, a law passed by Congress in 2019 provided that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority would be deemed to have automatically consented to U.S. court jurisdiction if they engaged in certain activities in the United States or made payments to individuals who attacked Americans. The appeals court had previously ruled the statute unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court reversed that decision and upheld the law.
Justice Sotomayor did not provide a reason for her decision and did not refer the request to the full court. Sotomayor is responsible for handling emergency applications from New York and certain other states.
