and Google directly to the 2017 attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul. The family of a man killed in the attack says the companies aided and abetted the attack because they assisted in the growth of the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the attack. A lower court let the lawsuit go forward.
The court’s disposition of Wednesday’s case and a related one it heard a day earlier is important, particularly because the companies have been shielded from liability on the internet, allowing them to grow into the giants they are today.If the court bars the lawsuit involving the attack in Turkey from going forward it could avoid a major ruling on the companies' legal immunity.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, participating remotely for a second straight day because of illness, told a lawyer for the family that he was "struggling with how your complaint lines up with the three requirements of the statute" that the companies knowingly helped a person commit a terrorist act.