The justices ruled 8-1 in favour of the food companies and against a group of six adult citizens of Mali who claimed they were taken from their country as children and forced to work on cocoa farms in neighbouring Ivory Coast.

“Although respondents’ injuries occurred entirely overseas, the Ninth Circuit held that respondents could sue in federal court because the defendant corporations allegedly made ‘major operational decisions’ in the United States. The Ninth Circuit erred by allowing this suit to proceed,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a majority opinion for the court.

The argument of the group from Mali is that Minneapolis-based Cargill and the US arm of Switzerland-based Nestle “aided and abetted” their slavery as children by, among other things, buying cocoa beans from farms that used child labour. The group sued, seeking to bring a class-action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and who they say are thousands of other former child slaves.

Nestle and Cargill have said they have taken steps to combat child slavery and have denied any wrongdoing.

It's almost beyond parody for the Supreme Court to uphold in a 8 to 1 decision that child slavery done abroad is totally legal as long as you just claim to not know about it