Supreme Court 6-3 eliminated human rights claims under Alien Tort Statute in Cisco Systems v. Doe, overruling Sosa

On June 23, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe to categorically eliminate human rights claims under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), a 1789 law that had served since 1980 as the primary US civil legal vehicle for holding corporations and individuals accountable for torture, forced labor, extrajudicial killings, and other violations of international norms committed abroad. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the conservative majority; Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson dissented. The majority also held that aiding-and-abetting claims are not actionable under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA).

The case arose from claims that Cisco Systems provided surveillance technology to the Chinese government used to identify, track, and arrest Falun Gong practitioners. The ATS had been dormant for nearly two centuries until the Second Circuit opened it to human rights litigation in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala (1980). The Supreme Court had preserved a narrow form of ATS jurisdiction in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain (2004), limiting claims to violations of clearly established international norms. The Cisco majority went further and overruled Sosa entirely, holding that no ATS claims may be heard in federal court.

The ruling closes a 46-year chapter in US human rights litigation. Future civil claims for overseas abuses involving US corporations — including torture, forced labor, and extrajudicial killings — will depend on the narrower TVPA (limited to torture and extrajudicial killing, and only against individuals) or on foreign law. The decision extends the Roberts Court's documented pattern of eliminating federal judicial remedies for civil rights violations, removing an available accountability mechanism without formally repealing the statute.