⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Seventh Circuit hears Xu Lun versus Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation. Xu Lun is the court-used pseudonym of a former prisoner in China who says he was forced to manufacture work gloves bearing Milwaukee Tool's logo. He describes compulsory work for very little pay. His lawsuit alleges that the gloves were sold to American customers and that Milwaukee Tool knowingly benefited from forced labor. Milwaukee Tool disputes the allegations. This is a civil damages case, not a criminal prosecution. The district court dismissed the claim because it concluded that the federal anti-trafficking law's civil remedy did not reach the alleged conduct in China. That ruling addressed the statute's geographic reach, not whether forced labor was proved at a trial. Xu Lun's lawyer will offer two paths to reversal: first, that the company's alleged American sales and benefiting make this a domestic case; second, that Congress authorized civil recovery for overseas forced labor. The company will contend that domestic profits do not supply the relevant domestic conduct, and that authority for overseas criminal prosecutions does not automatically authorize private damages suits. Listen for which activity the statute focuses on, and whether its criminal and civil provisions have the same territorial reach.

Xu Lun v. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation (No. 25-3347) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, argued November 4, 2026.