Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-499_1a7d.pdf
Page Number: 83.0

26 

JESNER v. ARAB BANK, PLC 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

dispositive  comparative  value  in  discerning  the  scope  of
liability under the ATS. 

Furthermore,  Congress  repeatedly  emphasized  in  the 
House  and  Senate  Reports  on  the  TVPA  that  the  statute
was meant to supplement the ATS, not replace or cabin it.
See  H. R.  Rep.  No.  102–367,  pt.  1,  p. 3  (1991)  (“Section
1350 has other important uses and should not be replaced. 
There  should  also,  however,  be  a  clear  and  specific  rem­
edy,  not  limited  to  aliens,  for  torture  and  extrajudicial
killing”); id., at 4 (“The TVPA . . . would also enhance the 
remedy  already  available  under  section  1350  in  an  im­
portant  respect:  While  the  [ATS]  provides  a  remedy  to
aliens only, the TVPA would extend a civil remedy also to
U. S.  citizens  who  may  have  been  tortured  abroad”);  ibid. 
(“[C]laims based on torture or summary executions do not 
exhaust  the  list  of  actions  that  may  appropriately  be 
covered  b[y]  section  1350.  That  statute  should  remain 
intact  to  permit  suits  based  on  other  norms  that  already
exist  or  may  ripen  in  the  future  into  rules  of  customary
international  law”);  S. Rep.  No.  102–249,  pp. 4–5  (1991);
see also Sosa, 542 U. S., at 731 (explaining that the TVPA 
“supplement[ed] the judicial determination” in Filartiga).
Lacking  any  affirmative  evidence  that  Congress’  deci­
sion  to  limit  liability  under  the  TVPA  to  natural  persons 
indicates a legislative judgment about the proper scope of
liability in all ATS suits, the plurality focuses its efforts on
dismissing  petitioners’  argument  that  Congress  limited 
TVPA liability to natural persons to harmonize the statute
with  the  Foreign  Sovereign  Immunities  Act  of  1976 
(FSIA),  which  generally  immunizes  foreign  states  from
suit.  See ante, at 21.10  Contrary to the plurality’s conten­
—————— 

10 The TVPA requires state action to trigger liability.  See 28 U. S. C. 
§1350 note (imposing liability on “[a]n individual who, under actual or
apparent  authority,  or  color  of  law,  of  any  foreign  nation”  subjects  an
individual  to  torture  or  extrajudicial  killing).    Absent  a  limitation  on 
suits against  states and state entities, the TVPA arguably would have