Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 24, 1993 TAG: 9303240028
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
U.S. JUSTICES RULE AMERICAN CAN'T SUE SAUDIS FOR TORTURE
The Supreme Court made it harder Tuesday to sue foreign nations in U.S. courts as it killed the lawsuit of an American who says he was imprisoned and tortured for criticizing the Saudi Arabia hospital in which he worked.The 6-3 decision said a 1976 federal law that generally protects foreign governments from being sued in the United States requires dismissal of the diplomatically sensitive case.
At issue was the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, which strictly limits U.S. court authority to hear lawsuits against foreign nations.
Such suits are allowed only if "based upon a commercial activity carried on in the United States by the foreign state."
Writing for the court, Justice David Souter said the treatment that Scott Nelson, of Raleigh, N.C., says he suffered was not based on a commercial activity:
"The conduct boils down to abuse of the power of its police by the Saudi government, and however monstrous such abuse undoubtedly may be, a foreign state's exercise of the power of its police has long been understood . . . as peculiarly sovereign in nature."
The case has been a sensitive one for official U.S.-Saudi relations. Two weeks after a federal appeals court ruled in 1991 that Nelson could sue the Saudi government in federal court, the Saudi ambassador sought then-Secretary of State James Baker's help.
State Department officials said, however, that Prince Bandar bin Sultan's letter played no role in the U.S. government's decision to support Saudi Arabia's appeal and ask the Supreme Court to reverse the appeals court's ruling.
Souter was joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Justice Byron White concurred in the result.
Justices Anthony Kennedy and Harry Blackmun unsuccessfully sought to return a part of the lawsuit - accusing Saudi Arabia of failing to warn Nelson about the dangers of his job - back to a federal trial court. Justice John Paul Stevens wanted to let federal courts hear all of the suit.
Nelson says he suffered severe physical and emotional injuries when he was beaten and tortured during a 39-day imprisonment in Saudi Arabia in 1984.
His wife, Vivian, said Saudi police offered to free him in return for sexual favors.
Saudi officials said Nelson was never tortured, and that he was arrested for lying on his job application. Nelson has admitted that he lied about a college degree.
In a separate ruling, the Supreme Court said federal immigration officials routinely may lock up immigrant children awaiting deportation hearings if there is no adult relative or legal guardian to take them.
The court, by a 7-2 vote in a California case, said the government policy of refusing to release such children is reasonably related to the stated purpose of protecting immigrants under age 18.