Supreme Court Takes Up Holocaust Survivors’ Lawsuit Against Hungary

The Supreme Court said on June 24 it would take another look at claims by Hungarian Holocaust survivors and their heirs to property taken from them when victims were forced to board trains to concentration camps during World War II. The dispute, which has lasted longer than a decade, raises questions about how much jurisdiction U.S. courts have over foreign entities. A federal law known as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) generally grants foreign governments immunity from prosecution in U.S. courts. But it contains an “expropriation exception” for property taken in violation of international law. The survivors have alleged that property taken during the Nazi occupation of Hungary was transferred to the country’s treasury and co-mingled with government revenues. Because Hungary engages in commercial activity in the United States, the survivors and heirs argued they could sue under the FSIA....