Lawmakers Urge Solicitor General to Oppose Supreme Court Review in Cisco Human Rights Case

A group of lawmakers has written to Solicitor General Sauer urging the Department of Justice to recommend that the Supreme Court deny Cisco Systems’ petition for certiorari in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe I. The case centers on allegations that Cisco custom-designed surveillance technology for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to identify and persecute members of the Falun Gong religious community.

The lawmakers argue that the plaintiffs, who have sought justice since 2011, deserve the opportunity to present their evidence in court. They warn that Supreme Court intervention at this early stage would be premature and would further delay accountability for serious human rights abuses.

The letter places the case in the context of decades of bipartisan congressional action condemning China’s repression of Falun Gong and other religious and ethnic minorities. Since the early 2000s, congressional hearings, reports, and resolutions have documented the CCP’s campaign of torture and persecution, and repeatedly emphasized that American companies must not be complicit in such abuses.

Lawmakers note that the Cisco case advances long-standing congressional policy: preventing U.S. technology and expertise from enabling authoritarian repression. They reject Cisco’s claim that the litigation harms American foreign policy, stating that accountability for corporate complicity strengthens, rather than undermines, America’s human rights leadership. The letter also disputes Cisco’s assertion that Congress authorized the export of surveillance tools, clarifying that no U.S. law or legislative history supports such a position.

Read the letter here.