Obama vetoes bill paving way for 9/11 families to sue Saudi Arabia, setting up a possible override

[link to www.latimes.com]

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President Obama vetoed legislation Friday that could allow Americans to sue Saudi Arabia over whether it supported some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, potentially triggering the first veto override of his presidency.

Obama's veto was the 12th in his eight years in office. But given the breadth of support for the bipartisan measure — it passed unanimously in both the House and Senate — the veto could be the first lawmakers are able to overcome with an override vote.

That step is not assured, though. The administration has begun courting lawmakers, particularly fellow Democrats, who may agree with the spirit of the legislation but could be swayed to Obama’s side by arguments about the potential geopolitical ramifications of the bill.

The legislation would revive a lawsuit brought by families of Sept. 11 victims against the Saudi government by clarifying a 1976 law governing the principle of sovereign immunity. The measure specifies that foreign governments could be held liable in American courts for terrorist attacks in the U.S.

The White House has warned that the legislation could prompt legal and economic retaliation from foreign governments. It has raised the specter of the U.S. government being sued in courts all over the world, and pointed to Saudi Arabia’s threat to sell off hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. debt and other assets, though the effectiveness of that has been called into question.