As Lawfare readers know, the question of corporate liability under the Alien Tort Statute is once again before the Supreme Court. But other ATS issues are still dividing lower courts.

On Monday, April 3, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a new Alien Tort Statute case, Jesner v. Arab Bank, No. 16-499.

As Lawfare readers know, ever since the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, lower courts have split over how to apply the majority’s cryptic holding that the Alien Tort Statute is presumed not to apply to conduct on the territory of another country, unless the plaintiff’s claims “touch and concern” the United States with sufficient force to overcome that presumption.

Last week, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of several Alien Tort Statute claims against Yusuf Ali, a former Colonel in the Somali National Army who served under the military dictatorship of Mohamed Siad Barre. The plaintiff, Farhan Warfaa, is a member of a clan persecuted by the Barre regime during the 1980s, and still resides in Somalia. Warfaa alleges that in 1987, Ali (and soldiers under Ali’s command) detained, interrogated, and repeatedly tortured him before shooting him and leaving him for dead.