By Justin Wise
Publication Date: 2026-04-27 08:45:00
The Supreme Court is confronting whether a US tech firm can face legal action for designing a digital surveillance system in Silicon Valley that allegedly facilitated a foreign power’s atrocities abroad.
The justices hear arguments on Tuesday over whether a 1789 law applies to Cisco Systems Inc.’s alleged role in developing and implementing the “Golden Shield” surveillance system that China used in a violent crackdown on adherents of the Falun Gong religious movement.
The dispute, to be decided by July, may further shape the pathway for efforts to hold corporations accountable for human rights abuses under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows courts to hear non-citizens’ lawsuits over certain violations of international law.
The justices over the past 20 years have sharply limited the scope of such lawsuits. But the court has so far left open a lane for the type of aiding-and-abetting allegations that 12 Chinese nationals and one US citizen have pursued against Cisco since…
