June 5, 2025
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. §§1330, 1602-1611, authorizes federal trial courts to try certain cases brought against foreign governments, and against certain instrumentalities of foreign governments. To obtain jurisdiction over those foreign entities, the Act requires a specialized service of process on the foreign defendant. 28 U.S.C. §§1330(b), 1608. Different laws of procedure that govern service of process on domestic defendants within the United States impose a “minimum contacts” test on service of process to assure that a served defendant has had a sufficient relationship with the court’s home state to make the requirement to appear in that court fair. In CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd. v. Antrix Corp. (US SupCt Slip Opinion of June 5, 2025) the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act did not impose the domestically applicable “minimum contacts” test as a prerequisite to federal court jurisdiction over foreign entities that are sued under that Act.
Comment: The Court’s decision and Opinion in this case faithfully followed the text of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, together with the Act’s clearly evident purposes. The Court left open, possibly for later litigation, the separate issue of whether the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the federal Constitution might impose a “minimum contacts” test on district court jurisdiction under the Act.
Dan D. Rhea
RECENT RULINGS 