Families of 9/11 victims to pack NYC court as Saudi gov’t tries
Appeals court Judges Guido Calabresi, William Nardini and Eunice Lee will hear from lawyers for both Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 victims' families on Wednesday.
Twenty-four years later, and the families are still fighting for the full story. The Saudi government wants the appeals court to toss the lawsuits, and three judges in Manhattan will hear the arguments on Wednesday. But before any legal fine print gets debated, remember the basic fact that started all this: fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi nationals.
Commentary is separate from the original publisher's reporting.
A federal appeals court will hear arguments Wednesday on whether Saudi Arabia can dodge a lawsuit alleging it aided the 9/11 hijackers — as relatives of New Yorkers killed in the attacks intently watch.
More than 25 years after the deadly terror attacks, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan is considering a lower court judge’s bombshell August 2025 ruling leaving Riyadh potentially on the hook for damages in the long-delayed civil case.
Appeals court judges Guido Calabresi, William Nardini and Eunice Lee will hear from lawyers for both Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 victims’ families.
The families have dug up “reasonable evidence” that the Saudi government — which continues to deny playing any role in the attacks on 9/11 — ran a support network for the hijackers, US District Court Judge George Daniels found.
A potential juror could make “a reasonable inference” that Omar al-Bayoumi, a shadowy Saudi national who helped secure California lodging for a pair of American Airlines Flight 77 hijackers, had coordinated with the Saudi government, the judge ruled.
Al-Bayoumi, a suspected Saudi spy, once hosted a “welcome party” for two hijackers, had flight calculations that could be used to fly a plane into targets and at one point was seen in a chilling video “casing” the US Capitol building, according to court filings.
Saudi officials are appealing Daniels’ decision, and are expected Wednesday to rehash claims that Riyadh is immune from facing trial in a US court because it is a sovereign state.
Those claims have left 9/11 victims’ families fuming.
“The Kingdom continues to lie in court and deny any culpability, when the evidence shows that their agents were directly involved in the attacks,” said Terry Strada, national chair of 9/11 Families United, whose husband Tom, a bond broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, was killed in the north tower.
The 9/11 families’ long-running lawsuit, first filed in 2004, contends a group of religious extremists gained influence in Saudi Arabia’s government and provided aid to the hijackers.
“Saudi Arabia is a supposed ally and a friend of ours. Friends don’t treat friends like that,” added Brett Eagleson, whose father, Bruce, was killed on 9/11.
In total, 2,977 civilians were murdered on Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 al Qaeda terrorists — 15 of whom were Saudi citizens — hijacked four airliners and crashed them into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The terror group’s leader, Osama bin Laden, was a member of one of the kingdom’s wealthiest families, although the Saudis yanked his citizenship after he became a vocal critic of both the US and Riyadh.
After years of twists and turns — including an act of Congress making it easier for 9/11 victims’ families to sue countries accused of sponsoring terrorism — the case consolidated other suits and sharpened accusations that Saudi officials teamed up with the hijackers who came to the US in early 2000.
Oral arguments are expected to last around 45 minutes Wednesday. The court is then expected to rule in writing on a future date.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Twenty-four years later, and the families are still fighting for the full story. The Saudi government wants the appeals court to toss the lawsuits, and three judges in Manhattan will hear the arguments on Wednesday. But before any legal fine print gets debated, remember the basic fact that started all this: fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi nationals. That is not a coincidence, and it is not ancient history.
The Saudi legal team will lean on sovereign immunity, which is a real doctrine with real limits. But Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act for a reason, and it was to pierce that shield when there is credible evidence of state involvement. We are not arguing that the entire kingdom plotted the attacks. But for two decades, the official story has had holes, and the government has been still hiding behind national security to keep the most damning parts of the 28-page congressional report out of public view. That is not transparency, and it is not justice.
This is not about vengeance or dragging a foreign ally through the mud for sport. It is about accountability, and the families deserve their day in court just like anyone else would. They lost fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters in the worst terrorist attack on American soil, and they have spent two decades watching the legal system tie itself in knots. A trial is not a declaration of war; a trial is a demand for answers.
The judges on this panel are not political hacks. Calabresi, Nardini, and Lee are serious legal minds, and they should follow the law wherever it leads. But the law here is supposed to protect victims, not shield foreign governments from hard questions. We hope the court lets this case move forward. The families have earned the right to present their evidence. The truth has been delayed long enough — and if the Saudi government is as innocent as it claims, it should welcome the scrutiny.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.