Opinion ID: 2605
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Torture Victim Protection Act (Count One)

Text: The TVPA, which is appended as a statutory note to the Alien Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, creates a cause of action for damages against [a]n individual who, under actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation . . . subjects an individual to torture. Id. § 1350 note (a)(1). [12] The District Court determined that the factual allegations set forth in Arar's complaint did not state a claim that defendants acted under color of foreign law. United States Br. 54. We agree. When seeking guidance on what it means to act under color of foreign law for the purposes of the TVPA, we generally look to principles of agency law and to jurisprudence under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Kadic v. Karadzic, 70 F.3d 232, 245 (2d Cir.1995). As the Supreme Court has noted, [t]he traditional definition of acting under color of state law requires that the defendant in a § 1983 action have exercised power `possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of state law.' West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42, 49, 108 S.Ct. 2250, 101 L.Ed.2d 40 (1988) (quoting United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, 326, 61 S.Ct. 1031, 85 L.Ed. 1368 (1941)); see also Hayut v. State Univ. of New York, 352 F.3d 733, 744 (2d Cir.2003). Applied to the present context, this proposition suggests that a defendant alleged to have violated the TVPA acts under color of foreign law when he exercise[s] power `possessed by virtue of [foreign] law' and commits wrongs `made possible only because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of [foreign] law.' West, 487 U.S. at 49, 108 S.Ct. 2250. Arar contends that our prior holdings contemplate a different standard of liability under § 1983 and, by extension, the TVPA. Specifically, he asserts that  Kletschka [v. Driver, 411 F.2d 436 (2d Cir.1969) (Lumbard, C.J . )] holds that the § 1983 test is satisfied if the state or its officials played a significant role in the result, Plaintiff's Br. 25 (internal quotation marks omitted). We disagree. In Kletschka, we stated that, [w]hen [a] violation is the joint product of the exercise of a State power and of a non-State power[,]. . . the test under the Fourteenth Amendment and § 1983 is whether the state or its officials played a `significant' role in the result. 411 F.2d at 449. We also noted, however, that, when the non-State actor is a federal official, we will not find that state law played a significant role unless the complained-of actions can be attributed to the control or influence of the State defendants. Id. As we explained, this control or influence test reflects the evident purpose of § 1983[,] [which is] to provide a remedy when federal rights have been violated through the use or misuse of a power derived from a State.  Id. at 448-49 (emphasis added). Because federal officials cannot exercise power under foreign law without subjecting themselves to the control or influence of a foreign state, our comments in Kletschka are entirely consistent with the test for TVPA liability outlined above, which we hereby adopt in this opinion. Arar alleges that defendants removed him to Syria with the knowledge or intention that Syrian authorities would interrogate him under torture. He also alleges that, while he was in Syria, defendants provided Syrian authorities with information about him, suggested subjects for Syrian authorities to interrogate him about, and received all information coerced from [him] during [these] interrogations. Compl. ¶ 56. Nowhere, however, does he contend that defendants possessed any power under Syrian law, that their allegedly culpable actions resulted from the exercise of power under Syrian law, or that they would have been unable to undertake these culpable actions had they not possessed such power. Because prior precedents of the Supreme Court and our Court indicate that such allegations are necessary to state a claim under the TVPA, we affirm the District Court's dismissal of Count one of Arar's complaint. [13]