## Facts

- Anonymous Falun Gong practitioners and supporters alleged persecution by Chinese authorities in a government campaign against Falun Gong beginning in 1999, including detention and torture.
- Plaintiffs alleged China built a nationwide surveillance and public security initiative known as the “Golden Shield.”
- Plaintiffs alleged Cisco Systems, Inc. did not merely sell standard technology, but helped design, customize, and maintain Golden Shield features aimed at identifying, tracking, and enabling the apprehension of Falun Gong practitioners.
- Plaintiffs alleged Cisco marketed its technology to Chinese security officials as supporting repression of Falun Gong and provided engineering support, training, and field assistance to Chinese public security organs.
- Plaintiffs alleged the system enabled Chinese authorities to locate, detain, and torture plaintiffs and others.
- Plaintiffs sued Cisco and two executives (John Chambers and Fredy Cheung) asserting, among other claims, Alien Tort Statute (ATS) claims (including aiding and abetting and conspiracy tied to alleged international-law violations) and Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) claims.
- The district court dismissed ATS claims and dismissed a plaintiff’s TVPA claim against the executives on the ground the TVPA does not allow aiding-and-abetting liability.

## Issues

1. Whether corporations may be defendants in ATS suits.
2. Whether aiding-and-abetting liability is a sufficiently definite and widely accepted norm under customary international law to support an ATS claim, and what act and mental state are required.
3. Whether the pleaded conduct amounted to an impermissible extraterritorial application of the ATS or a permissible domestic application.
4. Whether the allegations sufficiently pleaded any required state action for the asserted international-law norms.
5. Whether the TVPA allows aiding-and-abetting liability against individuals.

## Decision

- The court held corporations may be held liable under the ATS.
- The court held ATS aiding-and-abetting liability is cognizable and requires substantial assistance with at least knowledge that the assistance will facilitate the violations.
- The court reversed dismissal of the ATS claims against Cisco and remanded, concluding plaintiffs plausibly alleged substantial assistance and knowledge and that the alleged U.S.-based conduct was sufficient for a domestic application of the ATS.
- The court affirmed dismissal of the ATS claims against Chambers and Cheung, concluding the pleadings did not plausibly allege their personal, knowing, substantial assistance and did not satisfy the domestic-conduct requirement as applied to them.
- The court reversed dismissal of the TVPA aiding-and-abetting claim against the executives (as to the plaintiff asserting it) and remanded, holding the TVPA permits aiding-and-abetting liability.

## Legal Principles

- Corporations are not categorically exempt from liability under the ATS.
- Aiding-and-abetting liability may support an ATS claim when it is grounded in a norm of customary international law that is specific and widely accepted.
- ATS aiding and abetting requires: (1) substantial assistance that has a significant effect on the principal violation, and (2) at least knowledge that the assistance will facilitate the violation.
- ATS claims must be a domestic application of the statute; domestic conduct must be tied to the statute’s focus and cannot rest on generalized corporate oversight alone.
- Where an asserted international-law norm requires state action, allegations of cooperation with and use by foreign security organs can satisfy the requirement at the pleading stage.
- The TVPA permits aiding-and-abetting liability against individuals who knowingly provide substantial assistance to torture or extrajudicial killing carried out under color of foreign law.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit reinstated ATS aiding-and-abetting claims against Cisco based on allegations of U.S.-based design and support for a surveillance system used in repression, while leaving ATS claims against two executives dismissed for insufficient personal, domestic, substantial assistance allegations, and it held the TVPA allows aiding-and-abetting claims against individuals.


Doe I v. Cisco Sys., Inc., 73 F.4th 700 (9th Cir. 2023)