Sarei v. Rio Tinto, PLC

Mining company Rio Tinto (defendant) operated a mine on Bougainville, Papua New Guinea (PNG), whose pollution and Rio Tinto's request that PNG's military suppress resulting local sabotage led to a brutal decade-long civil war marked by widespread human rights abuses. Bougainville residents (plaintiffs) sued Rio Tinto under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) for war crimes, racial discrimination, and violations of the Law of the Sea Convention; the U.S. State Department submitted a statement of interest warning that continued litigation risked harming the fragile peace process and U.S. foreign relations, and the district court dismissed the suit as a nonjusticiable political question.