(Minghui.org) Just Security, an influential online publication and forum for expert analysis on U.S. national security, law, and human rights, published an article titled “Cisco’s Real Stakes: Digitally Aiding and Abetting” on April 14, 2026. The article provides an in-depth analysis of whether Cisco can be held accountable for building a surveillance system in China to aid the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
The article focuses on a case against Cisco Systems that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on April 28, 2026. The case was filed by Falun Gong practitioners, who accuse Cisco of aiding and abetting torture by developing and maintaining the Chinese regime’s “Golden Shield” surveillance system with the knowledge that it was being used to identify, track, and arrest Falun Gong practitioners.
The Cisco suit was filed under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), which allows non-U.S. citizens to sue in U.S. federal courts for violations of the “law of nations,” which includes crimes such as torture. The question to be considered by the Supreme Court is whether a U.S. company can be held liable under the ATS for aiding and abetting torture and other human rights violations.
“Discouraging technology companies from actively enabling such repression will be key to the future of human liberties, not just abroad, but here in the U.S. as well,” said the article’s author, Harold Hongju Koh. Koh is Sterling Professor of International Law and a former Dean of Yale Law School.
The article also explains that existing precedent makes Cisco a clear case for affirming the Ninth Circuit decision that plaintiffs’ claims were sufficient to survive Cisco’s motion to dismiss, and that the case could proceed. If the Supreme Court rules otherwise, Koh writes, it would “immunize U.S. corporate defendants who actively aid and abet mass governmental surveillance that leads to gross human rights abuses.”
JustSecurity.org was founded by Ryan Goodman, former counsel to the U.S. Department of Defense. It is housed in the Reiss Center on Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. The platform invites law professors, former government officials, and human rights experts to share in-depth legal views on major controversial events.