John Doe VII v. Exxon Mobil Corp (09–7125) is a lawsuit filed in the United States by 11 Indonesian villagers against ExxonMobil Corporation alleging that the company is responsible for human rights violations in the oil-rich province of Aceh, Indonesia.
[3][4] The eleven plaintiffs, contended in their lawsuit that family members were "beaten, burned, shocked with cattle prods, kicked, and subjected to other forms of brutality and cruelty" amounting to torture in Indonesia's Aceh province between 1999 and 2001, during a period of civil unrest.
[7] In July 2002, the Legal Adviser of the Department of State, William Howard Taft IV, sent a letter to the district court and later filed a statement of interest warning that allowing the lawsuit to proceed "would harm relations with Indonesia".
[6] In October 2005, District Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer dismissed the plaintiffs' claims under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victim Protection Act, finding they were political questions and so lacked justiciability.
[6] Judge Brett Kavanaugh dissented, arguing that the appeal should instead be treated as a petition for mandamus, and that federal courts should dismiss lawsuits as nonjudiciable whenever the Executive Branch has reasonably claimed the litigation would harm U.S. foreign policy interests.