Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-416_i4dj.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

Cite as:  593 U. S. ____ (2021) 

9 

Opinion of the Court
Opinion of THOMAS, J. 

might doubt a judicial decision to create a cause of action 
that  would  enforce  torts  beyond  those  three:  Creating  a 
cause of action under the ATS “inherent[ly]” raises “foreign-
policy concerns.”  Jesner, 584 U. S., at ___ (majority opinion) 
(slip op., at 19).  This suit illustrates the point, for the alle-
gations  here  implicate  a  partnership  (the  Harkin-Engel 
Protocol and subsequent agreements) between the Depart-
ment  of  Labor,  petitioners,  and  the  Government  of  Ivory 
Coast.  Under that partnership, petitioners provide mate-
rial  resources  and  training  to  cocoa  farmers  in  Ivory 
Coast—the same kinds of activity that respondents contend 
make petitioners liable for violations of international law. 
Companies  or  individuals  may  be  less  likely  to  engage  in 
intergovernmental  efforts  if  they  fear  those  activities will 
subject them to private suits. 

Although specific foreign-policy concerns may vary from 
case to case, our precedents are clear that creating a cause 
of action to enforce international law beyond three histori-
cal  torts  invariably  gives  rise  to  foreign-policy  concerns. 
Ibid. (“foreign-policy . . . concerns [are] inherent in ATS lit-
igation”).  Because “[t]he political branches, not the Judici-
ary,  have  the  responsibility  and  institutional  capacity  to 
weigh foreign-policy concerns,” there will always be a sound 
reason for courts  not to create  a cause  of  action  for  viola-
tions  of  international  law—other  than  perhaps  for  those 
three torts that were well established in 1789.  Id., at ___– 
___ (slip op., at 18–19). 

Congressional  activity  independently  provides  a  sound 
reason to conclude that Congress might doubt a judicially 
created  cause  of  action.  It  is  instructive  to  consider  the 
changes Congress made to the remedies in the Trafficking 
Victims  Protection  Reauthorization  Act  of  2003  (TVPRA), 
which imposes liability for offenses related to human traf-
ficking.  The initial text, passed in 2000, imposed criminal 
liability for human trafficking.  §112, 114 Stat. 1464.  Con-
gress later added a private right of action in 2003, allowing