[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday asked [order list, PDF] for the Obama administration’s position on an appeal [docket] by the Iranian Central Bank over whether $1.75 billion must be paid to families of the victims of the 1983 Lebanon US Marine Corps barracks bombing. The victims’ families were awarded $2.65 billion in 2007 after a US court found Iran backed the Shi’ite militant group’s truck bombing, which killed 241 US servicemen. The legal question in the case is whether a 2012 law that specifically addressed the funds at issue violates the US Constitution by dictating the outcome of the court case. The Supreme Court regularly asks for the presidential administration’s views on whether to hear cases that affect US interests. The court did not set a deadline for the Obama administration to respond.

The 1983 Beirut attack [BBC Backgrounder] has been the subject of much legal controversy surrounding compensation of the victims’ families. In 2012 a federal judge awarded [JURIST report] $44.6 million from Iran to two US marines and their families as a result of injuries sustained in the 1983 suicide-truck bombing on American barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. In September 2007 Iran dismissed a federal court ruling that required the country to compensate [JURIST reports] the families of 241 US military personnel killed in the 1983 bombing of US Marine barracks in Beirut. Iran called the $2.65 billion US ruling “baseless” and “politically motivated,” as it was the largest judgment ever awarded by a US court against a foreign country. While Iran has consistently been accused of supporting Hezbollah [CFR backgrounder], the militant group behind the bombing, the Islamic Republic has denied responsibility. The American death toll in the 1983 terror attack was the highest on record prior to the 9/11 [JURIST backgrounder] terrorist attacks.