Kiobel Watching

For those watching for signs of how oral arguments went in the U.S. Supreme Court in Kiobel this morning, early consensus seems to be that while a majority of the justices were plainly concerned by a reading of the universal jurisdiction statute that would give the courts the power to hear cases with no substantial connection to the United States, “a majority [also] did not seem inclined to narrow the Alien Tort Statute nearly into non-existence.” So writes the venerable Lyle Denniston over at Scotusblog. There may be quite a line-drawing exercise to come. More on the arguments here in a bit…