Suing tyranny?

National: SUPREME COURT: Human-rights activists take to U.S. courts to call to account some of the worst foreign abusers. That may sound good in theory, but the high court will have to consider whether it's right to let lawyers conduct foreign policy by lawsuit | Bob Jones

On March 30, Sudanese Christians finally got their day in court -- along with Afghan prisoners of war, Burmese peasants, South American union organizers, and the mothers of Tiananmen Square.

With little fanfare and few picketers, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in what could be its most far-reaching case ever. If the court sides with the Bush administration to limit the little-known but much-abused Alien Tort Claims Act, it would shut literally billions of potential litigants out of the American justice system.

That's exactly what needs to happen, according to Carter G. Phillips, the attorney for one of the plaintiffs in the case. "There are too many cases creating too much havoc for no good reason," he told the court. "Enough is enough."