Al-Haramain Islamic Found., Inc. v. Obama, No. 11-15468 (9th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseThis case, which came before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for a second time, was one of many related to the United States government's Terrorist Surveillance Program. After the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation was investigated by the Treasury Department, Al-Haramain and two of its lawyers (Plaintiffs) filed suit, thinking they had been unlawfully surveilled. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held the suit was not precluded by the state secrets privilege and remanded for consideration of whether FISA preempted the privilege. On remand, the district court (1) concluded that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) preempted the state secrets privilege; (2) held that 50 U.S.C. 1810 waived the United States' sovereign immunity; and (3) awarded the two individual Plaintiffs statutory damages and attorney's fees. At issue on appeal was whether the district court erred in predicating the United States' liability for money damages on an implied waiver of sovereign immunity under section 1810. The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's judgment awarding damages and attorney's fees to Plaintiffs, holding that section 1810 does not include an explicit waiver of immunity, nor was it appropriate to imply such a waiver.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on December 5, 2012.
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