United States Ninth Circuit

In an action brought against Caterpillar by plaintiffs whose family members were killed or injured when the Israeli Defense Forces demolished homes in the Palestinian Territories using bulldozers defendant manufactured, dismissal of the action is affirmed as plaintiffs' claims presented nonjusticiable political questions that deprived the district court of subject matter jurisdiction when construed under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1).

Appellate Information

• Argued 07/09/2007
• Decided 09/17/2007
• Published 09/17/2007

Judges

• WARDLAW, Circuit Judge:, Before:  ARTHUR L. ALARCÓN, HAWKINS, and KIM McLANE WARDLAW, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Gwynne Skinner and Ronald C. Slye, Seattle University, Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinic, Seattle, WA;  Maria C. LaHood and Jennifer Green, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York, NY;  and Erwin Chemerinsky (argued), for the plaintiffs-appellants., Ronald J. Bettauer, Deputy Legal Adviser, Department of State, Jeffrey Buchwoltz, Acting Assistant Attorney General, John McKay, U.S. Attorney, Douglas N. Letter, Robert M. Loeb (argued), Attorneys, Appellate Staff, Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for amicus curiae the United States., Ralph G. Steinhardt, George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC, for amicus curiae International Law Scholars., Marco Simons and Richard L. Herz, Earthrights International, Washington, DC, for amicus curiae Career Foreign Service Diplomats., Allan Ides, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CA, for amicus curiae Professors of Constitutional and International Law., Terry Collingsworth, for amicus curiae the International Labor Rights Fund., Tyler R. Giannini, Human Rights Program of Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, for amicus curiae Law Professors., Robin S. Conrad and Amar D. Sarwal, National Chamber Litigation Center, Inc., Washington, DC;  Maria Ghazal, Business Roundtable, Washington, DC;  Paul R. Friedman, John Townsend Rich, and William F. Sheehan, Goodwin Procter LLP, Washington, DC, for amicus curiae the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America and Business Roundtable.


• For Appellees:
  
• Robert G. Abrams (argued), Howrey LLP, Washington, DC;  Joanne E. Caruso, Richard J. Burdge, Jr., and David G. Meyer, Howrey LLP, Los Angeles, CA;  James L. Magee, Graham & Dunn PLC, Seattle, WA, for the defendant-appellee.