The US Supreme Court on Friday unanimously rejected the arguments of a group of Holocaust survivors demanding that Hungary pay reparations for confiscating their property during World War II.

The court’s opinion in Republic of Hungary v. Simon was delivered by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who stated that foreign states are granted “presumptive immunity from suit in the United States,” meaning that foreign governments cannot be sued in US courts unless certain exceptional conditions are met.

According to the opinion, to sue a foreign entity in US courts, “plaintiffs must satisfy one of the exceptions to immunity set forth in the FSIA [Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act].” FSIA immunity exceptions state that property taken in violation of international law and that has a commercial connection to the US is eligible for lawsuit in the US courts.

The Holocaust survivors and their heirs had cited this FSIA exception, which strips a foreign government from immunity in cases involving property seized in violation of international law. They argued that the seized property had a “commercial nexus” to the US, as the Hungarian defendants sold the property and mixed the money from that sale with funds in a government treasury account.

The court found instead that the exception is a “limited departure” from the general rule that foreign governments have immunity from lawsuits in US courts. In other words, while there are special circumstances where a lawsuit can be brought up against a foreign government, those situations are rare. As such, the court ruled that the mixing the proceeds from the seized property with government funds was not a sufficient commercial nexus to the US, not meeting the specific conditions for the exception to apply.

During the occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany in World War II, Jews were persecuted, systematically killed, and sent to concentration camps via the Hungarian State Railways. In 2014, Hungary was also sued by the survivors and their heirs, demanding reparations for their treatment by the state, in this case through the Hungarian State Railways. The US Supreme Court rejected the claim in 2021.