Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-499_1a7d.pdf
Page Number: 90.0

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

33 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

litigation,  it  has  identified  nothing  to  support  its  conclu­
sion  that  “foreign  corporate  defendants  create  unique 
problems”  that  necessitate  a  categorical  rule  barring  all
foreign corporate liability.  Ante, at 26. 

Absent any reason to believe that the corporate form in
itself raises serious foreign-policy concerns, and given the 
repeated urging from the Executive Branch and Members
of  Congress  that  the  Court  need  not  and  should  not  fore­
close corporate liability, I would reverse the decision of the 
Court  of  Appeals  for  the  Second  Circuit  and  remand  for
further  proceedings,  including  whether  the  allegations 
here sufficiently touch and concern the United States, see 
Kiobel, 569 U. S., at 124–125, and whether the international-
law  norms  alleged  to  have  been  violated  by  Arab  Bank—
the  prohibitions  on  genocide,  crimes  against  humanity,
and  financing  of  terrorism—are  of  sufficiently  definite
content and universal acceptance to give rise to a cause of 
action under the ATS. 

III 
In categorically barring all suits against foreign corpora­
tions under the ATS, the Court ensures that foreign corpo­
rations—entities capable of wrongdoing under our domes­
tic  law—remain  immune  from  liability  for  human  rights
abuses, however egregious they may be.

Corporations can be and often are a force for innovation
and growth.  Many of their contributions to society should
be  celebrated.  But  the  unique  power  that  corporations 
wield can be used both for good and for bad.  Just as cor­
porations can increase the capacity for production, so, too,
some can increase the capacity for suffering.  Consider the 
genocide that took upwards of 800,000 lives in Rwanda in
1994,  which  was  fueled  by  incendiary  rhetoric  delivered
via a private radio station, the Radio Télévision Libre des 
Mille Collines (RTLM).  Men spoke the hateful words, but