In a scathing ruling in which a federal court judge affirmed that anti-LGBT hate group leader Scott Lively of Abiding Truth Ministries aided and abetted anti-LGBT persecution and that Lively violated international law, the court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Ugandan LGBT groups on a narrow jurisdictional ground.

Judge Richard Ponsor cited a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that was issued after the initial lawsuit against Lively was filed. The ruling in Kiobel vs. Royal Dutch Shell limited the extraterritorial reach of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), under which Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) sued Lively in 2012.

The federal lawsuit against Lively was filed by the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on behalf of SMUG. The suit alleged that Lively’s involvement in anti-LGBT efforts in Uganda, which included his active participation in the development of anti-LGBT policies aimed at revoking rights of LGBT people constituted persecution. The lawsuit was the first known ATS case “seeking accountability for persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity,” according to CCR. Read more via Southern Poverty Law Center