El-Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries Co. v. United States
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
607 F.3d 836 (2010)
After the U.S. government (defendant) launched missile strikes destroying a Sudanese factory believed linked to a terrorist network's chemical-weapons production, the factory's owners (plaintiffs) sued alleging the strike was a mistake targeting an uninvolved facility, raising both international-law claims (that the bombing was unjustified) and defamation claims (challenging the government's stated rationale); the district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based on the political question doctrine, and a divided panel initially affirmed before rehearing was granted.
Whether, before determining that the political question doctrine automatically bars the court from answering questions involving foreign relations or national security, the court must first conduct a discriminating analysis of the question posed.