Supreme Court will decide if U.S. victims of terrorist attacks in Israel can sue PLO

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court will decide whether U.S. citizens killed or injured in terrorist attacks in Israel can sue the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority in the United States.

The families of dozens of U.S. citizens harmed in attacks against Israeli targets between 2000 and 2005 sued the organizations under the Anti-Terrorism Act, a law enacted in 1992 to allow suits by victims of terror attacks committed against U.S. nationals abroad.

But after a jury sided with the families, an appeals court in 2016 threw out the $655.5 million judgment.

The court found that the terrorist attacks, “as heinous as they were, were not sufficiently connected to the United States” to allow U.S. courts to consider them.

Congress amended the law, but the lower courts rejected those changes.

The Justice Department joined the families in asking the Supreme Court to review those findings.

The appeals court's decision, lawyers for the families told the justices, not only killed the heart of the original law but also "hamstrung Congress on matters involving foreign affairs and national security."

"The political branches determined that this statute serves vital national interests in disrupting and deterring terrorism, compensating American terror victims, and promoting peace in the Middle East," they said in a filing.

The justices are expected to hear the case later next year.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court to decide if U.S. victims of terrorist attacks abroad can sue PLO