Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe · ¶14
The new Constitution equipped the Federal Government to deal with this problem. Article III extends the judicial power to “all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public ministers and Consuls,” and “to Controversies . . . between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.” §2. The First Congress implemented these provisions through the Judiciary Act of 1789, which established lower federal courts and granted them jurisdiction to hear suits implicating foreign affairs. See, e.g., §9, 1 Stat. 77 (admiralty and maritime jurisdiction); ibid. (jurisdiction over “suits against consuls or vice-consuls”); §11, id., at 78 (jurisdiction over suits where “an alien is a party”). The Act also included what is now known as the Alien Tort Statute. §9, id., at 77. The ATS grants federal district courts jurisdiction over “any civil action by an alien for a tort only,…Read in context ›
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