Abebe-Jira v. Negewo

On January 10, 1996, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a ruling on Abebe-Jira v. Negewo 72 F.3d 844 (11th Cir. 1996). Negewo claimed that the lawsuit should not have been heard because the courts did not have subject matter jurisdiction and that a non-justiciable political question was present.

The 11th Circuit dismissed both claims of Mr. Negewo and upheld the ruling of the lower court. When writing about the subject matter jurisdiction the court quoted Filartiga, "[S]ection 1350 should interpret international law as it has evolved and exists at the time of the case." (Filartiga 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir. 1980)). The court then quotes a number of other cases that have interpreted Filartiga to allow rights that are already internationally recognized. For an alien to file a claim under section 1350 the alien needs to meet three conditions: (1) an alien sues (2) for a tort (3) committed in violation of the law of nations (i.e. international law.) Kadic. v Karadzic 70 F.3d 232 (2d Cir. 1995) Furthermore, Congress can enact legislation that allows certain groups of people access to the federal court system and this law allows that.

The claim that this was a non-justiciable political question was quickly thrown out by the court citing Linder v. Portocarrero , 963 F2d 232 (11th Cir. 1992)