Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act

Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act

Long title	An act to deter terrorism, provide justice for victims, and for other purposes.
Enacted by	the 114th United States Congress
Citations
Public law	Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 114–222 (text) (PDF)
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 2040 by John Cornyn (R-TX) on September 16, 2015 Committee consideration by Senate Judiciary Passed the Senate on May 17, 2016 (voice vote) Passed the House on September 9, 2016 (voice vote) Vetoed by President Barack Obama on September 23, 2016 Overridden by the Senate on September 28, 2016 (97–1) Overridden by the House of Representatives and became law on September 28, 2016 (348–77)
United States Supreme Court cases
Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh, No. 21-1496, 598 U.S. ___ (2023) Gonzalez v. Google LLC, No. 21-1333, 598 U.S. ___ (2023)

The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 114–222 (text) (PDF)) is a law enacted by the United States Congress that narrows the scope of the legal doctrine of foreign sovereign immunity. It amends the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in regards to civil claims against a foreign state for injuries, death, or damages from an act of international terrorism on U.S. soil.

The bill passed the Senate with no opposition in May 2016 and, in September 2016, was unanimously passed by the House of Representatives. On September 28, 2016, both houses of Congress passed the bill into law after overriding a veto from President Obama which had occurred five days earlier. This was the only presidential veto override of Obama's administration.^[1]

The practical effect of the legislation was to allow the continuation of a longstanding civil lawsuit brought by families of victims of the September 11 attacks against Saudi Arabia for its government's alleged role in the attacks, though the law does not mention Saudi Arabia by name.^[2]