The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal of a controversy between Hungary and Holocaust survivors over Hungary’s confiscation of their property during World War II. This will be the second time the US Supreme Court is hearing this case.

Republic of Hungary v. Simon was initiated by fourteen Holocaust survivors in 2010. The plaintiffs sought compensation from Hungary, arguing that the country’s government stole their property before sending them to concentration camps. The case revolves around the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which generally provides foreign sovereign states immunity from being sued in the US, but an exception can apply when property confiscation violates international law.

In 2021, the case reached the US Supreme Court after Hungary appealed a lower appeals court’s decision to grant the Holocaust survivors compensation on the basis that the FSIA exception did apply.

The Supreme Court ruled in the 2021 case Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp that the exception did not apply forced sales made to support genocide because the exception covers international law of expropriation instead of genocide. The court remanded Republic of Hungary v. Simon that year “for further proceedings consistent with the decision [in Philipp].”

Hungary petitioned the Supreme Court again in February 2024 because of conflicting precedents from appeals courts. Central to its appeal is are two requirements for the FISA exception to apply: a sufficient connection between a foreign state or its agencies and commercial activity in the US, or a commercial nexus with the US. Specifically, Hungary asked:

(1) Whether historical commingling of assets suffices to establish that proceeds of seized property have a commercial nexus with the [US] … (2) Whether a plaintiff must make out a valid claim that an exception to the [FSIA] applies at the pleading stage, rather than merely raising a plausible inference … [and] (3) Whether a sovereign defendant bears the burden of producing evidence to affirmatively disprove that the proceeds of property taken in violation of international law have a commercial nexus with the United States under the expropriation exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.