White & Case secures victory for Tenex-USA in US Supreme Court, affirming key sovereign immunity decision

Global law firm White & Case LLP achieved a decisive victory for Tenex-USA in a precedent-setting sovereign immunity case that reached the United States Supreme Court. On January 20, 2026, the Supreme Court refused to hear a petition challenging a DC Circuit decision that US courts lack jurisdiction over decades-old expropriation claims by Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the United States (Chabad). This outcome marks a significant confirmation of sovereign immunity law, upholding the strict jurisdictional limits under US law for claims against a foreign sovereign in US courts.

The dispute arose in 2004 when Chabad sought to recover a collection of religious writings allegedly seized by the Soviet Union in the 1920s and currently held by the Russian State Library and Russian State Military Archive in Moscow. Chabad invoked the US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's (FSIA) "expropriation exception" against the Russian Federation and its state agencies. Represented by other law firms, the Russian defendants withdrew from the case in 2009 after losing on several jurisdictional defenses. The US District Court for the District of Columbia subsequently entered a default judgment requiring the Russian defendants to turn over the collection to Chabad and imposing civil contempt sanctions of US$50,000 per day for each day of noncompliance.

White & Case entered the matter in 2019 after Chabad served subpoenas on Tenex-USA, a Maryland-based company with no ties to the underlying claims and separated by four tiers of distinct corporate entities from any of the Russian defendants. Chabad then sought discovery to pierce several layers of the corporate veil between Tenex-USA and the Russian Federation, and moved to enforce its nearly US$200 million sanctions judgments against Tenex-USA's assets. Throughout the litigation, Tenex-USA maintained that it is entirely independent from the Russian Federation, and that the judgment could not be enforced against the Russian Federation because of DC Circuit precedent holding that FSIA expropriation claims against a foreign state require the allegedly expropriated property to be located in the US.

In 2024, the DC Circuit unanimously sided with Tenex-USA, confirming that the District Court's judgment against the Russian Federation was void and could not be enforced against Tenex-USA or any other entity, as the disputed property is outside the US. The DC Circuit's decision not only shielded Tenex-USA's assets from improper enforcement but also set a clear precedent limiting the FSIA's expropriation exception and reaffirmed the DC Circuit's consistent holdings in prior cases.

In February 2025, Chabad petitioned the US Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. The petition was supported by an amicus curiae brief signed by several members of Congress. Further underscoring the significance of the case, the Supreme Court invited the views of the US. Although the US had consistently taken the same view as Tenex-USA in similar cases under prior administrations, the latest US brief recommended granting Chabad's petition. Given the high frequency of the Supreme Court agreeing with the recommendation of the US' views, the odds of obtaining a denial of certiorari were overwhelmingly against Tenex-USA. However, through White & Case's relentless advocacy and unmatched FSIA expertise, the Supreme Court denied review.

The White & Case team in the Supreme Court was led by partners Carolyn Lamm and Nicolle Kownacki and associate Alec Albright (all in Washington, DC), with additional support throughout the litigation from partners Christopher Curran (Washington, DC) and Jacqueline Chung (New York); associates Hannelore Sklar (New York), Caitlin Walczyk and Kimiya Haghighi (both in Washington, DC); and alumni David Riesenberg, Ena Cefo and Maya Kliger.

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