Court will not hear N-appeal from islanders

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear an appeal from the indigenous people of the Marshall Islands as to whether they can sue the federal government again for blowing up and irradiating the land by conducting nuclear tests in the 1940s-50s.

The high court on Monday turned away the appeal from the people of Bikini Atoll and Enewetak Atoll, both parts of the Marshall Islands.

Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, then a U.S. protectorate under the United Nations. The megatonnage was equal to exploding 1.6 Hiroshima atomic bombs a day for 12 years.

The federal government agreed to pay the people of Enewetak $385 million and the people of Bikini $563 million for the loss of their land. Only a token amount has been paid so far.

The islanders have sued to get the rest of their money, but the courts have thrown out their lawsuits.

The islanders agreed to have their complaints against the United States heard by a Nuclear Claims Tribunal, which awarded them the money.

In exchange for setting up the tribunal, lower courts said Congress had banned the federal judiciary from hearing this type of complaints from the Marshall Islanders again.

The Marshall Islands' protectorate status ended in 1986. The islands now constitute a parliamentary democracy in free association with the United States.

The cases are the people of Enewetak v. United States, 09-498, and the people of Bikini v. United States, 09-499.