Justices Reject Appeal by Former Iran Hostages

NYTimes.com – The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the last legal appeal for former American hostages seeking compensation for their captivity in Iran three decades ago, leaving legislation newly introduced in Congress as the last chance to resolve their longstanding grievance.

A lower court, acting at the request of the State Department, previously blocked the hostages’ effort to win compensation from Iran, holding that the agreement under which they were released barred such claims. The former hostages had sued under a 1996 law that they argued allowed them to seek damages, and in August 2001 they won a judgment of liability, because Iran did not appear in court to defend itself. But the State Department argued that its ability to conduct foreign policy would be compromised if damages were awarded.

The Supreme Court, as is its custom, did not give a reason for its decision on Tuesday.

Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days after Iranian radicals seized the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

“I would never have thought when I was getting kicked around in Iran that my own government would ever go to court to stop me," said David M. Roeder, a retired Air Force colonel who was the named plaintiff in the case. But after 12 years of legal wrangling, he said he was not surprised by the outcome.

“It’s not just this administration or Clinton or even the Bush administration; there seems to be some sort of a weird hands-off-Iran policy,’’ he said.

The approximately 100 people named in the suit, which included former hostages and some of their survivors, were seeking $10,000 a day, or $4.4 million each. According to their lawyers, money deposited in the United States by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran before he was forced from power and frozen by the Carter administration after the hostages were taken is still available.

Mr. Roeder and the other plaintiffs are hopeful that Congress will act again. On May 17, Representative Bruce Braley, an Iowa Democrat, and Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who is chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced legislation that would double the fines against companies that are caught doing business with Iran. Half of the money would be used to compensate the former hostages. The bill would also let the president use frozen Iranian assets.

Mr. Braley’s district includes the residence of one former hostage, Kathryn L. Koob. Mr. Braley said that when Congress returned to Washington he would seek support from other members who represented districts where former hostages lived. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen has been a vocal supporter of the hostages’ case for years.

When it occurred, the taking of the hostages convulsed American politics and gave an impression of impotence under the presidency of Jimmy Carter; it also contributed to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. The hostages were freed on the day he was inaugurated.