Bartlett v. Baasiri (U.S. Supreme Court, 2023)

In this case, ADL joined with Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox Union, and One Israel Fund urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review and overturn a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit involving a lawsuit filed by families of dozens of U.S. servicemembers who were killed or injured by Hezbollah attacks. The lawsuit, relying on the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), seeks compensation from the Jammal Trust Bank (JTB), which provided financing to Hezbollah. JTB claimed in its defense that when Banque du Liban, Lebanon's central bank, liquidated JTB and acquired its assets—after the litigation commenced— JTB was then shielded by another statute, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Although the district court rejected JTB’s sovereign immunity defense, the Second Circuit reversed and held that JTB had become immune. As the brief drafted for us by the law firm Haynes and Boone, LLP, points out, the Second Circuit’s decision shielding JTB from liability imperils the “framework of anti-terrorism legislation aimed at deterring terror financing and compensating terror victims,” a framework “that has been critical to the fight against international terrorism.”