Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-499_1a7d.pdf
Page Number: 7.0

Cite as:  584 U. S. ____ (2018) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

No. 16–499 
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JOSEPH JESNER, ET AL., PETITIONERS v.
 
ARAB BANK, PLC
 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
 

[April 24, 2018] 

JUSTICE KENNEDY announced the judgment of the Court 
and  delivered  the  opinion  of  the  Court  with  respect  to
Parts  I,  II–B–1,  and  II–C,  and  an  opinion  with  respect  to 
Parts  II–A,  II–B–2,  II–B–3,  and  III,  in  which  THE  CHIEF 
JUSTICE and JUSTICE THOMAS join. 

Petitioners in this case, or the persons on whose behalf
petitioners  now  assert  claims,  allegedly  were  injured  or 
killed by terrorist acts committed abroad.  Those terrorist 
acts, it is contended, were in part caused or facilitated by a 
foreign corporation.  Petitioners now seek to impose liabil-
ity on the foreign corporation for the conduct of its human
agents,  including  its  then-chairman  and  other  high-
ranking  management  officials.    The  suits  were  filed  in  a 
United States District Court under the Alien Tort Statute, 
commonly referred to as the ATS.  See 28 U. S. C. §1350.

The  foreign  corporation  charged  with  liability  in  these
ATS  suits  is  Arab  Bank,  PLC;  and  it  is  respondent  here. 
Some  of  Arab  Bank’s  officials,  it  is  alleged,  allowed  the 
Bank to be used to transfer funds to terrorist groups in the 
Middle East, which in turn enabled or facilitated criminal 
acts of terrorism, causing the deaths or injuries for which