Supreme Court: Iran must pay up

Two of three branches of the American government agree that Iran owes money to the families of the victims of its state sponsored terrorism.  Congress passed a law requiring that frozen Iranian assets be used to satisfy a judgment against Iran.  Iran argued that Congress overstepped.  Six of eight justices weren’t buying it.  The court ruled that Congress was within its authority to require satisfaction of the judgment.

This is a victory for at least some of the victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism.  Now if we could just get the Obama administration to recognize that ALL of Iran’s victims should be compensated before more funds are released to the rogue regime through sanctions relief.

From Reuters (with a hat tip to Zadok):

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that almost $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets must be turned over to American families of people killed in the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran.

The court’s 6-2 ruling dealt a setback to Iran’s central bank, finding that the U.S. Congress did not usurp the authority of American courts by passing a 2012 law stating that the frozen funds should go toward satisfying a $2.65 billion judgment won by the families against Iran in U.S. federal court in 2007.

Bank Markazi had challenged a 2014 ruling by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the assets, bonds held in a trust account overseen by former federal judge Stanley Sporkin, should be handed over to the more than 1,000 American plaintiffs.

With the legal questions resolved, lawyers for the plaintiffs said all that is left is for a federal judge to allow Sporkin to distribute the funds.

The lead plaintiff was Deborah Peterson, whose brother, Marine Lance Corporal James Knipple, died in the Beirut bombing…