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Oy. I think the problem with this kind of lawsuit is that it's difficult to argue that the descendants were done lasting harm because of what was committed as part of the slave trade hundreds of years ago. You can't answer all the "what if" questions to see if they would really be better off if the slave trade hadn't existed. It's just like yatzr said - how do they know they wouldn't be on the wrong end of some genocidal massacre going on in Africa now?
I know the argument about hitting people in the pocketbook to make them address wrongs, but it's a different story when it's an ongoing practice (like manufacturing faulty products) than when it's something that happened centuries ago and isn't still happening. It seems to me that this billion dollars could be much better spent teaching tolerance, educating women and children still stuck in post-colonial Africa, and fighting intergenerational poverty in this country, rather than enriching a few lawyers and some whiners who've suffered "lasting emotional harm" because of what their ancestors wen through. It was awful, it was inexcusable, unconscionable, inhuman, but they're doing themselves no favors by not just getting over it and making the best of what they've got now.
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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
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