Chief Justice Previously Considered Iraq Immunity Issue Raised in New Case
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether an order by President Bush restored Iraq’s immunity from lawsuits that could result in $1 billion or more in liability for the country’s new government.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has already weighed in on the issue as a federal appeals judge, finding immunity in a dissent in an earlier case, according to a cert petition and the Associated Press.
Federal law allows lawsuits in U.S. courts against countries that sponsor terrorism, but Iraq contends Bush’s order restored the country’s sovereign immunity. The Iraqi government says Bush was authorized to act under a 2003 law allowing the president to lift sanctions against the country, Bloomberg News reports.
One of the plaintiffs in the consolidated case is CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, who was kidnapped with a cameraman and held in Iraq for more than a month during the Gulf War in 1991, according to AP and Bloomberg.
The consolidated cases are are Iraq v. Beaty and Iraq v. Simon.
