Free Republic

Employment of Equipment Purchased by U.S. to Aid Ally Is Political Question, Court Says By STEVEN M. ELLIS, Staff Writer Objections to an American company’s sale of bulldozers to the government for use by the Israeli military, which used the equipment to demolish homes in the Palestinian territories, must be raised in the political process and not by litigation, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. The panel affirmed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Franklin D. Burgess of the Western District of Washington that the courts have no jurisdiction over a suit by the family of an...

<p>A federal appeals court panel has refused to reinstate a lawsuit brought against Caterpillar Inc. by the family of a 23-year-old peace activist crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer.</p>

WARDLAW, Circuit Judge: Plaintiffs Cynthia and Craig Corrie, Mahmoud Al Sho’bi, Fathiya Muhammad Sulayman Fayed, Fayez Ali Mohammed Abu Hussein, Majeda Radwan Abu Hussein, and Eida Ibrahim Suleiman Khalafallah filed this action after their family members were killed or injured when the Israeli Defense Forces (“IDF”) demolished homes in the Palestinian Territories using bulldozers manufactured by Caterpillar, Inc., a United States corporation. The IDF ordered the bulldozers directly from Caterpillar, but the United States government paid for them. The district court dismissed the action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), finding it lacked jurisdiction because, inter alia, the political...