## Facts

- Falun Gong practitioners, including U.S. citizens and an Illinois lawful permanent resident, sued Jiang Zemin (then President of the People’s Republic of China) and the Falun Gong Control Office (“Office 610”) in the Northern District of Illinois.
- Plaintiffs alleged that, beginning in 1999, China undertook a campaign to suppress Falun Gong involving torture, arbitrary detention, and related severe abuses.
- Plaintiffs asserted claims characterized as torture, genocide, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, and violations of freedoms of conscience, movement, and religion.
- Jiang was served with process while present in the United States, at a time when he was still a sitting head of state.
- The United States intervened and formally suggested head-of-state immunity for Jiang, asserting that subjecting him to service and suit would conflict with U.S. foreign-relations interests.

## Issues

1. Whether a foreign head of state served while in office is immune from suit in U.S. courts when the Executive Branch has suggested head-of-state immunity.
2. Whether alleged violations of jus cogens norms (including torture and genocide) create an exception to head-of-state immunity.
3. Whether service of process and the exercise of jurisdiction may proceed despite the Executive Branch’s determination that the suit would frustrate U.S. diplomatic objectives.
4. Whether claims against Office 610 (and theories casting Jiang as its agent) could avoid the immunity and jurisdictional barriers.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of the action.
- The court treated the Executive Branch’s suggestion of head-of-state immunity as controlling and held Jiang immune for acts taken in his official capacity while serving as President of China.
- The court rejected a jus cogens-based exception to head-of-state immunity in these circumstances.
- The court upheld denial of plaintiffs’ attempted service of process because the Executive Branch determined the litigation would interfere with U.S. diplomatic objectives.
- The court also upheld dismissal as to Office 610, including the determination that plaintiffs could not bypass immunity by recasting Jiang as an agent of that entity on the record presented.

## Legal Principles

- Head-of-state immunity determinations are committed to the political branches; when the Executive formally suggests immunity, federal courts generally defer and treat the suggestion as dispositive.
- Alleged violations of substantive international-law norms, including jus cogens prohibitions, do not eliminate head-of-state immunity recognized by the Executive for a sitting head of state served while in office.
- Questions of service of process and jurisdiction in suits against foreign leaders may be constrained by separation-of-powers concerns and the Executive’s foreign-relations judgments.
- Plaintiffs cannot avoid head-of-state immunity through pleading strategies that recharacterize an immune head of state as an agent or officer of another foreign entity without a sufficient jurisdictional and factual basis.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit held that, because the Executive Branch suggested head-of-state immunity for Jiang Zemin as a sitting head of state at the time of service, the federal courts could not permit service or exercise jurisdiction, and allegations of jus cogens violations did not create an exception; the court therefore affirmed dismissal of the claims against Jiang and Office 610.


Ye v. Zemin, 383 F.3d 620 (7th Cir. 2004)