On October 2, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit took significant strides toward reining in activists’ use of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) as a means of attempting to enforce international human rights law in federal courts. The court ruled that a defendant may not be found liable for assisting others’ alleged violations of the ATS in the absence of evidence it intended that those violations be committed. It is not enough to show that the defendant was aware of the alleged violations, the court ruled in dismissing ATS claims against an international oil company accused of aiding human rights violations by the government of Sudan. The decision could derail many other ATS suits against multinational corporations, including one highly publicized ATS suit against numerous companies that did business with apartheid South Africa. The decision was a victory for WLF, which filed a brief urging dismissal of all claims.