US Supreme Court declines to hear Jewish group's bid to sue Russia over seized religious texts

By Mike Scarcella

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday steered clear of a long-running dispute that is testing when foreign governments can be sued in American courts over property taken abroad, declining to hear a U.S.-based Jewish group's bid to recover a collection of sacred manuscripts once taken by the Nazis and now held in Russia.

The court turned down an appeal by Agudas Chasidei Chabad of a lower court's determination that Russia enjoyed immunity under a provision of U.S. federal law because the property at issue — a religious library and archive — was taken abroad and remains there. The administration of President Donald Trump had also asked the court to take up the case.

Agudas Chasidei Chabad, a Brooklyn-based umbrella group for the Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement, sued Russia in 2004, claiming ownership of a collection of books and manuscripts that ended up with the Russian government after being left in a warehouse for safekeeping in the early 1900s. The Soviet Army later seized the materials from the Nazis during World War Two.

In 2013, a federal judge in Washington held Russia in contempt for refusing to comply with an order to return the thousands of texts to the United States, imposing a $50,000-per-day fine that has now exceeded $175 million. But in 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Russia was immune from being sued, and ordered Russia dismissed as a defendant.

Despite what Chabad has described as "intense" diplomatic efforts, the collection remains in Russia, which has refused to hand over the so‑called Schneerson collection to Chabad. Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained that the materials form part of Russia’s cultural heritage.

A representative from the Russian embassy in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A lawyer for Chabad, Robert Parker, said they were disappointed by the court's order and would continue to pursue justice for Chabad.

"As the United States explained in its amicus brief, the issue in this case is of national importance, and Chabad’s case was just and worthy of the Court’s time," Parker said.

The litigation required courts to wrestle with the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's "expropriation" exception and when it allows lawsuits to proceed against a foreign state.

Chabad told the Supreme Court that federal appeals courts have split over when foreign governments can be held liable in U.S. courts. It argued in its petition that the D.C. Circuit's decision offers "a simple playbook for autocratic regimes to maintain sovereign immunity in U.S. courts: steal property from U.S. citizens and keep that property outside the territory of the United States."

The United States urged the justices to take Chabad's case, saying review was needed to resolve confusion about the scope of U.S. jurisdiction over foreign states.

"As with other instances of expropriation during the Holocaust, the return of the materials here would provide at least some small measure of justice to petitioner and its members," the Justice Department told the court.