On March 31, 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston held that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are required to answer in court to claims that they are complicit in the deaths of Americans killed by Middle East terrorists. Because the PLO and PA refused to raise a merits-based defense in the trial court but instead chose to rely solely on their alleged sovereign immunity, that court entered a $116 million default judgment against them in 2004. The appels court’s decision upholds that massive judgment. The decision was a victory for WLF, which filed a brief in support of the plaintiffs. The appeals court agreed with WLF that because there is not now a sovereign state of Palestine, neither the PLO nor the PA should be granted sovereign immunity from suit in U.S. courts, a privilege normally granted by the U.S. to other nations.