US Court Dismisses Lawsuit Brought by People of Bikini Atoll

A Federal Claims Court judge yesterday granted the U.S. motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the people of Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The lawsuit, filed in April 2006, with an amended complaint on July 18, sought damages for the U.S. Government's breaches of fiduciary duty to provide just and adequate compensation for the taking of their lands for U.S. Cold War nuclear testing. The U.S. submitted the Motion to Dismiss in September 2006.

Judge Christine Odell Cook Miller concluded, following her five month consideration of the case, that the "defendant’s motion is granted, and the Clerk of the Court shall dismiss plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction."

According to Judge Miller's opinion, filed August 2, 2007, factors in the decision supported the conclusion that plaintiffs’ claims impinge on the conduct of foreign affairs that the Constitution delegates to the Executive and Legislative branches.

"Moreover, the approval of the settlement terms by plebiscite in September 1983 would support a ruling that any dissatisfaction with the terms of the Compact and the Section 177 Agreement should be directed to the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, not that of the United States. Even if plaintiffs’ claims could survive the bar of the statute of limitations, the preclusive effect of collateral estoppel, and withdrawal of jurisdiction, the political question doctrine mandates declining judicial review of a challenge to the adequacy of the alternative relief afforded and delimited by the Compact Act and the Section 177 Agreement."

Section 177 of the Compact of Free Association between the U.S. and RMI, enacted in 1986, granted $150 million as part of a "full and final settlement" of legal claims against the U.S. government, and provided for possible additional compensation, under changed circumstances or if the provisions of the Compact "manifestly inadequate." The RMI Government submitted a Changed Circumstances Petition in 2000 requesting additional compensation, which was rejected by the Bush Administration in a decision published by the U.S. State Department in January 2005. U.S. congressional committees have held recent hearings on the matter.

The Bikinians were first removed from their home atoll on March 7, 1946, while the Marshall Islands was a U.S. Trust Territory of the United Nations. From 1946-1958, the U.S. conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. The people of Bikini live in exile today due to the contamination of their atoll.

-by Aenet Rowa, Yokwe Online, August 3, 2007

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