A three-judge appeals panel on Friday overturned a landmark jury verdict that found a Virginia contractor liable for the abuse of three Iraqis detained in 2003 and 2004.
The same panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit had previously upheld the verdict. But that was before the Supreme Court in June set new limits on the federal courts’ jurisdiction over violations of international law.
The Supreme Court’s opinion involved a different matter. But in an unsigned ruling, the appeals court panel wrote that the new precedent “effectively overruled” their previous finding that U.S. courts had jurisdiction over the plaintiffs’ claims through the Alien Tort Statute.
Friday’s decision suggests that one of the longest-running cases on the federal docket could be headed toward a conclusion. During two trials, both held in 2024, jurors heard testimony from the plaintiffs, Salah Hasan Al-Ejaili, a journalist, Suhail Al Shimari, a middle-school principal, and Asa’ad Al-Zuba’e, a fruit vendor.
The three men were arrested after the U.S. invaded Iraq in March of 2003 and took over Abu Ghraib, a prison outside Baghdad used by Saddam Hussein’s government. They were held on a special tier for detainees believed to possess valuable intelligence. According to military officers cited in a Red Cross report, “70 to 90 percent” of Iraqis who were detained by U.S. and allied forces “had been arrested by mistake.”
At the prison, the men said they were subjected to harsh and degrading treatment at the hands of their captors, including threats against family members and being chained to pipes overnight.
The trials marked the first time that civilian jurors had heard accounts of America’s post-9/11 torture program directly from detainees.
The plaintiffs could now file a new lawsuit, appeal to the Supreme Court, or ask the case to be heard again by a larger appellate panel.
The first jury that heard the case was unable to reach a verdict. A second jury awarded each of the men $3 million in compensation and another $11 million in punitive damages.
The money was to be paid by CACI International, a Virginia-based military contractor that supplied interrogators to the U.S. Army at the prison. The jury found that CACI conspired with U.S. soldiers to “inflict torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” on the three detainees.
“They believed us and sided with us,” said Mr. Al-Ejaili in a statement on Friday. “History will show that it was the Supreme Court that denied us justice.”
Baher Azmy, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, declined to say whether his clients would pursue further recourse. He called the ruling “a high-level jurisdictional decision,” and added, “it does nothing to wipe away the jury’s conclusion that CACI was responsible for the torture and abuse of men in Abu Ghraib, including our clients.”
A spokesman for CACI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The panel that handed down Friday’s ruling consisted of Judges Henry F. Floyd and Stephanie Thacker, both Obama appointees, and Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., a Trump appointee. They instructed the district court judge who oversaw the two trials, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia, to dismiss the case.
The Alien Tort Statute is a 1789 law that gives non-U.S. citizens the right to sue in federal court for some violations of international law. The recent Supreme Court ruling limited its scope to cases where there were violations of the rights of passport holders, “infringement of the rights of ambassadors, and piracy.” In that case, the court ruled that members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement could not sue a U.S. company that they claimed helped facilitate the Chinese government’s efforts to target and torture them.
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