# Yousuf v. Samantar

> Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit · January 8, 2009 · 552 F.3d 371

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9518622

## Case

- **Full name:** Bashe Abdi YOUSUF; Officer John Doe 1; Jane Doe 1; John Doe 2; John Doe 3; John Doe 4; Aziz Deria, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Mohamed Ali SAMANTAR, Defendant-Appellee. Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School; American Friends Service Committee; Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights; Consistent Life; Earthrights International; Dolly Filartiga; Florida Center for Survivors of Torture; Global Lawyers and Physicians; Human Rights First; Human Rights Watch; Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns; Muslim Public Affairs Council; Sister Dianna Ortiz; Program for Survivors of Torture and Severe Trauma; Program for Torture Victims; Rocky Mountain Survivors Center; Survivors of Torture, International; The Shalom Center; Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International; World Organization for Human Rights USA; International Rights Advocates; International Human Rights Clinic, Human Rights Program of Harvard Law School; United States Member of Congress and Law Professors, Amici Supporting Appellants
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- **Decided:** January 8, 2009
- **Citations:** 552 F.3d 371; 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 189; 2009 WL 40942
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Duncan
- **Judges:** Traxler, King, Duncan
- **Cited by:** 16 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9518622

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- describing TVPA requirement that the individual “who, under actual or apparent authority, or color of law, of any foreign nation ... subjects an individual to extra judicial killing” may be liable in a civil action for damages (quotations omitted)
- holding the FSIA does not govern the immunity of individual foreign officials
- holding that it does not
- discussing TVPA color-of-law requirement

## Opinion text

DUNCAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in Parts I and II and concurring in the judgment:
With respect, I join in all but Part III of Judge Trader’s incisive opinion. I agree with the majority that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”) does not, upon examination of its plain language and the context of its drafting, apply to individual officers of foreign states. I note as well that our decision on this issue is not the radical departure from the course of current authority that it might seem. While few of our sister circuits have reached the same conclusion, the United States Department of State has argued in analogous cases that the common law immunities that predate the FSIA remain the appropriate body of law under which courts should consider the sovereign immunity of individuals. Our decision in this case, is in keeping with this position and with the statutory text of the FSIA itself. I therefore concur in Parts I and II of the opinion and in the judgment reversing the district court and remanding this case for further proceedings.
Our conclusion that the FSIA does not apply to individuals is sufficient to resolve the case before us. Therefore, I do not join my colleagues in reaching the question of whether and how Dole Food Co. v. Patrickson, 538 U.S. 468 , 123 S.Ct. 1655 (2003), would apply to individual foreign officers. Prudential considerations also militate against an expansive holding. Sovereign immunity, while a judicial question, is inextricably bound up with the executive branch’s conduct of foreign affairs, and I would prefer to err on the side of caution in the extension of our jurisprudence.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9518622. Public record. Not legal advice.