Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Corporación Cimex, S. A. (Cuba) · ¶74

The bottom line is that the Helms-Burton Act, with respect to suits against Cuban agencies and instrumentalities, establishes a version of the immunity system in place before the FSIA. Recall that the old regime of Executive Branch immunity decisionmaking essentially allowed the State Department (under the direction of the President) to make the immunity call. In 1976, the FSIA then transferred “primary responsibility for deciding ‘claims of foreign states to immunity’ from the State Department to the courts.” Samantar, 560 U. S., at 313 (quoting 28 U. S. C. §1602).

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