1. This case presents an important and recurring question regarding the "terrorism exception" of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1605A ("FSIA"). The terrorism exception supplies federal courts with subject-matter jurisdiction to adjudicate claims against a foreign state for, among other acts, the state's "act of * * * extrajudicial killing" or "the provision of material support for such an act." Prior to the decision below, the overwhelming consensus among courts to consider the issue was that this language supplies subject-matter jurisdiction in cases alleging state-sponsored terrorist attacks that attempt, but fail, to kill their victims, leaving them injured or disabled. But the court of appeals bucked that consensus and held that courts have jurisdiction under the terrorism exception only when a victim (even one unrelated to the plaintiff) dies in the attack.

Whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's terrorism exception requires an actual death to establish subject-matter jurisdiction for claims involving state-sponsored terrorist attacks that result in serious injuries