Alvarez -Machain

Alvarez

On March 30, 2004, SDSHH partner Paul Hoffman will argue United States v. Alvarez-Machain in the U. S. Supreme Court. Hoffman has handled this case for the ACLU Foundation of Southern California since 1990. The Alvarez case arises out of the 1990 kidnapping of Dr. Humberto Alvarez-Machain by Mexican nationals hired by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) so he could be tried in the U.S. on criminal charges. After his December 1992 acquittal on the criminal charges, Dr. Alvarez and the ACLU filed an action for damages under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). He won a judgment against one of his Mexican kidnappers under the ATCA but his FTCA claims were dismissed by District Judge Stephen Wilson in Los Angeles. On Appeal the Ninth Circuit affirmed, in a September 2001 Panel decision and later in a June 2003 en banc decision, the ATCA judgment and reversed Judge Wilson on Dr. Alvarez' FTCA claims against the United States allowing them to go to trial. The Supreme Court accepted this case in December 2003 on all of these issues.

This case is the first case the Supreme Court has heard on the Alien Tort Claims Act and the decision is expected to have nationwide implications about the use of the Act to redress international human rights claims. A decision will be issued by June 2004.

The briefs and transcript may be downloaded here.

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