Unanimous court holds Iraqi government immune from acts under Saddam (June 8, 2009)

A unanimous Supreme Court held today that the current government in Iraq has sovereign immunity in U.S. courts for the alleged misdeeds that occurred under Saddam Hussein.

The court consolidated for review Iraq v. Beaty (07-1090) and Iraq v. Simon (08-539). The plaintiffs in both of these cases sued the Iraqi government, alleging that they were detained and tortured during the Gulf War.

One of the cases features a suit by CBS News correspondent Bob Simon. The other involves a challenge by the children of oil rig supervisor Kenneth Beaty, held in 1993, and of William Barloon, an aircraft maintenance supervisor detained in 1995.

A lower court determined that both Beaty and Barloon had been illegally detained and tortured. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed, noting that a 2003 order to reinstate Iraq’s immunity did not apply to lawsuits filed in U.S. courts.

The Iraqi government petitioned for Supreme Court review, arguing that the question of Iraq’s sovereignty impacts “what may be the most crucial U.S. foreign policy goal today: U.S. support for the reconstruction of Iraq and its democratic government.”

“In the view of both Iraq and the United States, subjecting the sovereign nation of Iraq to lawsuits based on the misdeeds of its prior regime would severely hinder that foreign policy goal and threaten the critical U.S.-Iraqi alliance,” it added.

On June 8, 2009, a unanimous Supreme Court reversed in an opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia.

"Iraq's sovereign immunity was restored when the president exercised his authority to make inapplicable with respect to Iraq any provision of law that applies to countries that have supported terrorism," Scalia wrote.

Question presented: Whether U.S. Courts have jurisdiction over Iraq in claims involving alleged misdeeds that occurred during Saddam Hussein’s regime.