The US Supreme Court has refused to allow victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to pursue lawsuits against Saudi Arabia and four Saudis over charitable donations allegedly funneled to Al-Qaeda. The court filing pointed out that the commission “found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization.” The court, in an order Monday, is leaving in place the ruling of a federal appeals court that the country is protected by sovereign immunity, which generally means that foreign countries cannot be sued in American courts. The Obama administration had angered some victims and families by urging the justices to pass up the case. The appeal was filed by more than 6,000 relatives of victims killed in the attacks and thousands of people who were injured, as well as businesses and governments that sustained property damage and other losses. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York previously had upheld a federal judge's ruling that threw out the lawsuits. The appeals court said the defendants were protected by sovereign immunity and the plaintiffs would need to prove that the Saudis engaged in intentional actions aimed at harming US residents. In their appeal to the high court, both sides cited the report of the US congressional commission that studied and criticized actions of the US government before and after the terror attacks.
