Second Circuit Affirms Dismissal of ATS/TVPA Suit Against Former President Zedillo

I am late in reporting that last month the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the ATS and TVPA suit against former President Zedillo of Mexico, based on the Suggestion of Immunity signed by my successor Harold Koh and submitted by the Executive branch to the district court.  The Second Circuit also declined to allow plaintiffs leave to amend their complaint. This is the first affirmance of a dismissal of a lawsuit against a former foreign government official after the Supreme Court’s decision in Samantar.  The D.C. Circuit had previously affirmed a decision by Judge John Bates refusing to compel the testimony of former Colombian President Uribe, again after the Executive branch filed a Suggestion of Immunity determining that he enjoyed immunity from being compelled to testify regarding his official acts. As I have noted previously, I think these lawsuits against, or seeking the testimony of, respected former senior government officials (President Zedillo is currently a professor of economics at Yale and President Uribe was a distinguished visiting professor at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service) stemming from disagreements about the policies of their governments are vexatious and undermine legitimate efforts to hold notorious war criminals accountable for their actions.  The suits are time-consuming and expensive for the defendants to defend and require the Executive branch to devote  substantial resources to deal with them and file Suggestions of Immunity when necessary.   I would be interested to know what mainstream human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First -- as well as my colleagues at Just Security -- think about such lawsuits.