Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-1011_mkhn.pdf
Page Number: 30

Cite as:  586 U. S. ____ (2019) 

11 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

sity, included immunity from suit in commercial areas, since 
organizations were buying goods and making contracts in 
the United States. 

To achieve these purposes, Congress enacted legislation
that  granted  necessarily  broad  immunity.    And  that  fact 
strongly  suggests  that  Congress  would  not  have  wanted 
the  statute  to  reduce  significantly  the  scope  of  immunity 
that  international  organizations  enjoyed,  particularly
organizations  engaged  in  development  finance,  refugee
assistance, or other tasks that U. S. law could well decide 
were “commercial” in nature.  See infra, at 12. 

To that extent, an examination of the statute’s purpose 
supports  a  static,  not  a  dynamic,  interpretation  of  its 
cross-reference  to  the  immunity  of  foreign  governments. 
Unlike  the  purpose  of  the  Civil  Rights  Act,  the  purpose 
here  was  not  to  ensure  parity  of  treatment  for  interna-
tional organizations and foreign governments.  Instead, as 
the  Court  of  Appeals  for  the  D. C.  Circuit  pointed  out 
years  ago,  the  statute’s  reference  to  the  immunities  of 
“foreign governments” was a “shorthand” for the immuni-
ties those foreign governments enjoyed at the time the Act
was  passed.  Atkinson  v.  Inter-American  Development 
Bank, 156 F. 3d 1335, 1340, 1341 (1998). 

III 
Now  consider  the  consequences  that  the  majority’s
reading  of  the  statute  will  likely  produce—consequences
that run counter to the statute’s basic purposes.  Although
the UN itself is no longer dependent upon the Immunities 
Act,  many  other  organizations,  such  as  the  FAO  and  sev-
eral  multilateral  development  banks,  continue  to  rely 
upon  that  Act  to  secure  immunity,  for  the  United  States
has never ratified treaties nor enacted statutes that might 
extend  the  necessary  immunity,  commercial  and  noncom-
mercial alike.