WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared likely to give tech giant Cisco permission to end a lawsuit claiming its technology was used to persecute members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in China.
Judges are reviewing an appeals ruling that would allow lawsuits against Cisco to continue in U.S. courts.
The company argued that it could not be held liable for aiding and abetting human rights violations under two separate laws. These laws are the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA), first enacted in 1991.
The main question for the court’s conservative majority appears to be how broad the Cisco ruling is and whether lower courts will allow too many similar lawsuits to proceed. Justice Neil Gorsuch asked at one point whether the courthouse doors were “not heavily guarded.”
In recent years, the Supreme Court and presidential administrations of both parties have been skeptical of lawsuits seeking to use U.S. courts as a venue to seek justice for the actions of foreign governments, especially those that occurred abroad. To allay such suspicions, Falun Gong members argue that a large portion of Cisco’s activities involving China are conducted in the United States.
An Associated Press investigation last year revealed that U.S. technology companies designed and built China’s surveillance state largely with encouragement from Republican and Democratic administrations, even as activists warned the tools were being used to suppress dissent, persecute religious groups and target minorities.
In 2008, documents leaked to the media showed that Cisco viewed China’s Internet censorship operation “Golden Shield” as a sales opportunity. The company quoted a Chinese official as saying Falun Gong was a “cult.” A Cisco presentation reviewed by The Associated Press last year said its products could identify more than 90 percent of Falun Gong materials on the Internet.
Other presentations reviewed by The Associated Press showed Cisco viewed Falun Gong material as a “threat” and established a national information system to track Falun Gong adherents. In 2011, Falun Gong members sued Cisco, accusing the company of customizing technology for Beijing knowing it would be used to track, detain and torture followers.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson seemed most willing to allow the lawsuit to proceed.
Sotomayor said Cisco is willing to cooperate with the Chinese government. “It knew those people were going to be tortured,” she said.
Cisco attorney Kannon Shanmugam said that’s not the case. “Cisco strongly refutes these allegations,” Shanmugam told the judge.
A decision is expected in late June.
