Court Opinion

ID: 9431517
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:32:29.170286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:28.796493
License: Public Domain

Justice Blackmun,
with whom
Justice Marshall joins, concurring in part.
I join the Court’s opinion insofar as it holds that the FSIA provides the sole basis for obtaining jurisdiction over a foreign state in federal court. Ante, at 431-439.
I, however, do not join the latter part of the Court’s opinion to the effect that none of the FSIA’s exceptions to foreign sovereign immunity apply in this case. As the majority notes, the Court of Appeals did not decide this question, ante, at 439, n. 6, and, indeed, specifically reserved it. 830 F. 2d 421, 429, n. 3 (CA2 1987). Moreover, the question was not among those presented to this Court in the petition for certiorari, did not receive full briefing, and is not necessary to the disposition of the case. Accordingly, I believe it inappropriate to decide here, in the first instance, whether any exceptions to the FSIA apply in this case. See this Court’s Rule 21.1(a) (Court will consider only questions presented in *444petition); Youakim v. Miller, 425 U. S. 231, 234 (1976) (Court ordinarily will not decide questions not passed on below). I would remand the case to the Court of Appeals on this issue.