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(WND News Center) The American Center for Law and Justice is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hold accountable those who pay the bills for terror against Israel.
“This case represents more than a legal dispute – it’s about protecting American lives and sending a clear message that those who support terrorism will be held accountable. The ACLJ remains committed to defending liberty, pursuing justice, and protecting the fundamental rights of Americans both at home and abroad,” the legal team explained in an online report.
The group, which defends Israel in courts all over the world, has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in America’s highest court urging the justices to keep American courts open to the victims of terror.
“By filing this brief, we stand firmly with victims of terrorism, urging the court to hold the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian Authority (PA) accountable for their ongoing support of terrorist activities that harm American citizens” the report said.
It explained America has the Taylor Force Act, which is a key piece of legislation to fight terrorist financing.
It was named in honor of Taylor Force, a brave U.S. Army veteran who was brutally murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Israel.
It targets “the Palestinian Authority’s deeply disturbing practice of providing financial rewards to terrorists and their families – a reprehensible policy that incentivizes violence against Americans and Israelis,” the ACLJ report said. “By imposing strict conditions on U.S. economic assistance to the PA, the act ensures that American taxpayer dollars are not indirectly supporting terrorism, cutting off funding when the PA continues its ‘pay-to-slay’ program that provides salaries to individuals imprisoned for terrorist acts.”
In fact, the ACLJ sued the Joe Biden administration for violating the law.
“To further implement and enforce the Taylor Force Act, Congress passed, and President Trump signed during his first term, the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (PSJVTA),” the report said. That is a tool crafted to provide American victims a way to justice.
“It creates a robust legal mechanism that enables victims of terrorist attacks to hold organizations accountable for their direct and indirect support of terrorism, specifically targeting entities like the PLO and PA. Congress said specifically that if the PLO and PA choose to continue to violate the Taylor Force Act and fund terrorism, as well as operate and fundraise in the United States, that conduct would be deemed implicit consent to participate in legal proceedings,” the legal team noted.
However, now the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has claimed that violates the due process rights of the terror-supporting organizations, and the ruling means they are shielded from accountability.
That lower court claimed there must be a “benefit” to the PLO and PA for them to be required to participate in court proceedings, a “requirement found nowhere in existing Supreme Court precedent.”
The ACLJ said its brief came in Fuld v. PLO and United States v. PLO and explains, “When organizations knowingly support terrorism against Americans, they should face legal consequences in U.S. courts.”
The report said, “Congress passed a law providing that if the PLO and PA continued to engage in this conduct, they would face consequences. They never stopped. The organizations admittedly continue making these payments despite clear congressional notice that doing so would subject them to American courts.”
Even as the organizations continue the “pay-for-slay” payments, the ACLJ noted, “The idea that Congress must bargain with terrorists by giving them ‘governmental benefit[s]’ to obtain their willingness to subject themselves to the jurisdiction of federal courts is incongruous and absurd. It has no place in the law. If the PLO and PA choose[] to continue making these odious payments, thus encouraging more terrorist attacks and putting more Americans at risk, then under the PSJVTA it may be sued in U.S. courts.”
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