A torture victim cannot sue the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991.

Says a unanimous Supreme Court, in an opinion (PDF) written by Justice Sotomayor. Sotomayor — why, by the way was nominated by a President who said was looking for a Justice with "empathy" — explained that the statute created a claim against "individuals," and that word only includes natural human beings and not artificial entities.

And no one, we hazard to guess, refers in normal parlance to an organization as an “individual.”...

Congress does not, in the ordinary course, employ the word any differently. The Dictionary Act instructs that “[i]n determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, unless the context indicates otherwise . . . the wor[d] ‘person’ . . . include[s] corporations, companies, associations, firms, partnerships, societies, and joint stock companies, as well as individuals.” 1 U. S. C. §1 (emphasis added). With the phrase “as well as,” the definition marks “individual” as distinct from the list of artificial entities that precedes it.

In law, it's the norm to see an organization as a "person," but not as an "individual."

ADDED: My post title, picking up language in the case syllabus, says "Palestinian Liberation Organization" when the real name of the defendant is "Palestine Liberation Organization." The same error appears in Sotormayor's opinion for the majority and Breyer's concurring opinion.