(Reuters) Even organizations accused of encouraging heinous acts of violence have constitutional due process rights — and Congress can’t override those rights with what a New York federal judge described as a “legislative sleight of hand” in a ruling on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan dismissed an Anti-Terrorism Act lawsuit brought against the PLO and the Palestinian Authority by family members of Ari Fuld, an American stabbed to death in 2018 outside a shopping mall in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. The judge described the stabbing as brutal and horrific, highlighting the plaintiffs’ allegation that the killer attacked Fuld because he was a Jewish American. The Fuld family’s campaign for justice, Furman said, was “morally compelling.”
The judge nevertheless concluded that he could not exercise jurisdiction over the case, despite a 2019 law intended to establish victims’ right to sue the groups in U.S. courts.
