Sotomayor Refuses to Pause a $656 Million Judgment Against the PLO and the Palestinian Authority

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Monday declined to pause a $656 million judgment against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, leaving the award in force while the two bodies pursue their appeal.

The judgment belongs to Americans killed or wounded in a series of attacks in Jerusalem in the early 2000s. Thirty-three people died in those attacks and hundreds were injured. The families sued under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the federal statute that opens U.S. courts to victims of international terrorism and allows them to collect damages from organizations found responsible.

The PLO and the Palestinian Authority had asked the justices for a temporary halt, arguing that being forced to pay while the appeal is pending would destabilize the government services they run in the West Bank — schools, salaries, security forces and health care already strained by a fiscal crisis. Sotomayor, who handles emergency applications from the federal appeals court that covers New York, turned the request down without referring it to the full court.

The litigation has already survived one death and one resurrection. A federal jury in New York originally returned a verdict for the plaintiffs, but an appeals court threw it out on the ground that U.S. courts lacked jurisdiction over the Palestinian bodies. The Supreme Court revived the cases in 2025, and in March 2026 the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the verdict, restoring the $656 million figure.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said the families were pleased and relieved by Monday's decision, saying it would allow "justice to be done" after two decades of litigation in which the money was awarded, taken away and awarded again. For families who have outlived some of the original plaintiffs, the delay itself has been part of the injury.

Refusing to pause a judgment is not the same as ruling on it, and Sotomayor's order says nothing about whether the underlying verdict will ultimately stand. The appeal continues, and the Palestinian bodies retain the option of asking the full Supreme Court to take up the jurisdictional question a third time. What the order does change is the immediate financial exposure: absent a stay, collection efforts against Palestinian assets in the United States can proceed while the case grinds on.

The dispute has always carried diplomatic weight beyond the courtroom. Successive U.S. administrations have had to weigh enforcing court judgments against Palestinian institutions while simultaneously funding and negotiating with them, and Monday's order sharpens that tension rather than resolving it.