Posted on 11/28/2005 12:44:12 PM PST by SmithL
The US Supreme Court refused Monday to disturb a $116 million judgment against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the deaths of a Jewish couple near the West Bank.
The PLO, and the Palestinian Authority had been sued in federal court in Rhode Island over the 1996 drive-by shooting of Yaron Ungar, an American citizen, and his Israeli wife, Efrat, as the couple returned home from a wedding.
The family's relatives argued that the PLO and Palestinian Authority provided a safe haven and operational base for the terrorist group Hamas, which was responsible for the attack. A judge issued a default judgment after the PLO did not respond to requests for depositions from people including the late Yasser Arafat.
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the lawyer for the PLO, told justices in the appeal last month that Ungar relatives have "commenced sweeping national and international efforts" to collect the millions of dollars, including an attempt to seize Palestine's UN Mission building in New York.
Clark said US courts "are marching off to the conflicts of the Middle East and elsewhere carrying with them the integrity of the US judiciary and risking the foreign perception that US courts will extend their jurisdiction globally deciding the most sensitive political questions affecting the foreign policies of the US and other nations as they go."
Is Ramsey Clark one of those lefties that favors world courts?
Yep
Saddam might just see how good Ramsey and his band of 3rd year law students are in court......
He gets around, doesn't he?
"Is Ramsey Clark one of those lefties that favors world courts?"
He's also one of Saddam Hussein's key defense lawyers.
"Is Ramsey Clark one of those lefties that favors world courts?"
He's also one of Saddam Hussein's key defense lawyers.
I understand that they are killing off Saddam's attorneys...Maybe there is still hope for Ramsey Clark.
Give the families the money they deserve.
Hope Saddam's paying this guy on contingency!
you know, Ramsey Clark doesn't exactly have a sterling win-loss record.
You would think that all the murderers, terrorists and despots would NOT want his help if he offers it.
> ... they are killing off Saddam's attorneys...
> Maybe there is still hope for Ramsey Clark.
Plan B for Saddam is to then switch to Johnny Cochran,
since he's already dead ...
.. and the outcome of the case will be the same.
rolling my eyes at this. do the perpetually poverty pimped pallies even have this much dough under usa control? will these deserving folks then turn around and divvy up the dough with all victims of pallies?
Under what law did the victims' family sue? Was it the Alien Tort Relief Act, under which Salvadoran military leaders have been sued (because of an incorrect interpretation of the venerable statute)? While I am as happy as anyone to see the Palestinian Authority being brought to justice, I frankly do not see why a federal court in Rhode Island should be allowed to impose damages on foreigners for crimes commited in foreign countries. This type of precedent would allow, say, a Mexican court to impose millions of dollars in damages against the Governor of Texas for the execution of a Mexican murderer, or on the Governor of Alabama for having a Mexican criminal serve on a chain gang (since such punishments would be "crimes" in Mexico).
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