Reading Room Document

Presidential Authority to Settle Claims of the Hostages and Their Families

The President may agree to a settlement with Iran whereby any tort claims of the hostages and their families against Iran would be extinguished, without working a taking for a public purpose within the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment. This conclusion is reinforced by the difficulty of identifying loss to the hostages and their families as a result of a claims settlement effected to secure their release, and the unlikelihood of their being able to recover in tort against Iran in any event in light of the noncommercial tort provision in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(5). The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22401/download.

October 14, 1980