The Flatow Amendment is an amendment to the

Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) is a United States law, codified at Title 28, §§ 1330, 1332, 1391(f), 1441(d), and 1602–1611 of the United States Code, that established criteria as to whether a foreign sovereign nation ...

passed in 1996, which allows American victims of terrorism to sue countries that are designated as terrorism sponsors. The legislation establishes that foreign state sponsors of terrorism “shall be liable to a United States national … for personal injury or death caused by acts of that arty��.” It is named after Stephen Flatow, whose daughter Alisa Flatow was killed in a suicide bombing attack carried out by militants belonging to the

Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), known in the West simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist pa ...

in 1995. After her death, Flatow commenced a series of lawsuits against the Iranian government. US Courts are thus authorized to award money damages to said victims. The

executive branch The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a state. In political systems b ...

, however, has often resisted paying these judgments from frozen terrorist state assets by arguing that it would hamper presidential ability to conduct foreign affairs.

References

Terrorism laws in the United States Foreign sovereign immunity in the United States 104th United States Congress {{Terrorism-stub