Christa Culver of SCOTUSblog deems Torture Victims Protection Act case Bowoto v. Chevron a “petition to watch.”
In a paralell to the Kiobel/Flomo split on whether corporations can be sued under ATCA/ATS, the 9th Circuit’s decision in Bowoto holds that corporations can not be sued under the TVPA. Judge Schroeder writes:
We agree with the district court that Congress’s use of the word ‘‘individual’’ throughout the statute indicates that it did not intend for the TVPA to apply to corporations. Indeed, Congress has directed courts to presume the word ‘‘individual’’ in a statute refers to natural persons and not corporations.
Bowoto v. Chevron, 621 F.3d 1116, 1126 (9th Cir. 2010), citing 28 U.S.C. § 1350, note § 2(a).