The 6-3 decision, issued on 23 June, does not decide whether Cuba's post-revolution nationalisations were lawful, or whether Exxon will ultimately collect damages. It answers the gatekeeping question that had stopped the case below: whether Exxon also had to satisfy one of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's usual exceptions before suing Cuban state-owned companies in a US court.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. The court reversed the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and remanded the case. Justice Elena Kagan dissented, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The dispute traces back to assets seized after Fidel Castro took power. The opinion says Cuba confiscated foreign-owned assets including Exxon's oil refinery, terminals, packaging plants and more than 100 service stations. Exxon sued Cuban state-owned companies, including Unión Cuba-Petróleo and Corporación CIMEX, under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, seeking more than $1bn in damages.
The Cuban defendants argued that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the usual framework for suing foreign states and their instrumentalities, still required Exxon to fit within a statutory exception. Exxon argued that Helms-Burton did that work itself because Congress created a private right of action for US nationals whose property was confiscated by the Cuban government and defined "person" to include a foreign state's agency or instrumentality.
The majority accepted Exxon's reading. Kavanaugh's opinion said the Helms-Burton Act "clearly abrogated" foreign sovereign immunity for Cuban agencies and instrumentalities by expressly authorising suits against them, treating those suits as federal-question cases rather than FSIA cases, and giving the president the power to suspend the suits on national-security or foreign-policy grounds. In the court's view, requiring plaintiffs to satisfy the FSIA as well would make many Helms-Burton suits "nonstarters" because the US embargo sharply limits commercial contact with Cuba.