SCOTUS: Falun Gong's Suit Against Cisco Is Dead

Falun Gong practitioners who say US-based Cisco helped China hunt them down can't press their case in American courts, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday, per the Washington Post. In a 6-3 vote, the justices reversed a lower appeals court decision that sided with Falun Gong members, report the New York Times and the Hill. The spiritual movement tried to use a 1789 federal law, the Alien Tort Statute, to hold the tech giant responsible for alleged human-rights abuses in China. A dozen Chinese nationals had accused Cisco of assisting Beijing's crackdown on Falun Gong by helping build a surveillance system that tracked members' online activity, leading to arrests, imprisonment, and torture, per the Post.

One plaintiff, William Wang, says he spent nearly 10 years behind bars after authorities monitored his internet use, arguing Cisco knew how its technology would be used. Cisco has long rejected that claim, saying it sold standard components and didn't tailor its products to enable repression. A company exec said in 2011 that Cisco had never customized gear to help any government censor content or monitor individuals. The court's decision "closes the courthouse doors not just to respondents, but to virtually every future litigant seeking redress for a violation of international law under the ATS," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, per the AP. The ruling continues a trend of the court narrowing the reach of the Alien Tort Statute, making it increasingly difficult for foreign plaintiffs to bring human rights cases against corporations in US courts.