This fall, the case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum (Shell) will go before the U.S. Supreme Court for the second time, with a critical human rights tool hanging in the balance. The Alien Tort Statute (ATS) allows foreigners to sue in US federal courts for egregious human rights abuses...If Shell has their way, the ATS will be largely dismantled and human rights law will be set back decades...Today was the filing deadline for amicus briefs in support of the plaintiffs, Nigerian plaintiffs who claim to have suffered violent repression at the hands of a brutal military dictatorship operating in complicity with Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell...According to ERI’s brief...when U.S. or foreign corporations commit human rights abuses abroad, U.S. courts have had the power to hear the victims’ claims since at least 1790.