CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd. v. Antrix Corp.

605 U.S. 223
Supreme Court of the United States·Decided June 5, 2025·No. 23-1201·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinions

Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

CC/DEVAS (MAURITIUS) LTD. ET AL. v. ANTRIX CORP.

LTD. ET AL.

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

No. 23–1201. Argued March 3, 2025—Decided June 5, 2025*

Devas Multimedia Private Ltd. signed a satellite-leasing agreement with Antrix Corporation Ltd., which is owned by the Republic of India for use by its Department of Space. But when the Indian Government later determined it needed more satellite capacity for itself, Antrix terminated the contract under its force majeure clause. The parties proceeded to arbitration. After unanimously concluding that Antrix had breached the contract, the arbitral panel awarded Devas $562.5 million in damages plus interest. Devas then petitioned the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington to confirm the award. The District Court confirmed the award and entered a $1.29 billion judgment against Antrix.

The Ninth Circuit reversed, finding that personal jurisdiction was lacking. Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA), “[p]ersonal jurisdiction over a foreign state shall exist” whenever (1) an immunity exception applies, and (2) the foreign defendant has been properly served. §1330(b). The Ninth Circuit did not question that Antrix is a “foreign state” under the FSIA, that an immunity exception applies, and that Devas effectuated proper service. Yet bound by Circuit precedent, the panel explained that the Act imposes an additional requirement: “personal jurisdiction under the FSIA [also] requires a traditional minimum contacts analysis” as set forth in International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U. S. 310, and its progeny. Applying that standard, the court concluded it could not exercise personal jurisdiction over Antrix because Antrix lacked sufficient suit-related contacts

with the United States.

Held: Personal jurisdiction exists under the FSIA when an immunity exception applies and service is proper. The FSIA does not require proof of “minimum contacts” over and above the contacts already required by the Act’s enumerated exceptions to foreign sovereign immunity. Pp. 7–13.

(a) The FSIA’s personal-jurisdiction provision imposes two substantive requirements. First, the district court must have subject-matter jurisdiction, which the FSIA grants whenever an enumerated immunity exceptions applies. Second, service must be made under the FSIA’s specialized service-of-process rules. When both criteria are satisfied, the statute declares that personal jurisdiction “shall exist.” Accordingly , the most natural reading of the operative text is that personal jurisdiction over a foreign sovereign is automatic whenever an immunity exception applies and service of process has been accomplished. Notably absent from the provision is any reference to “minimum contacts .” And the Court declines to add what Congress left out, as the FSIA was supposed to “clarify the governing standards,” not hide the ball. Verlinden B. V. v. Central Bank of Nigeria, 461 U. S. 480, 488.

Of course, the FSIA’s immunity exceptions themselves require varying degrees of suit-related domestic contact before a case may proceed . But to the extent these exceptions satisfy International Shoe, it is because the exceptions Congress wrote happen to meet that standard , not because the Act’s personal-jurisdiction provision secretly incorporated the Court’s due-process cases.

The Act’s structure reinforces this reading. The FSIA “comprehensively regulat[es] the amenability of foreign nations to suit in the United States.” Republic of Argentina v. NML Capital, Ltd., 573 U. S. 134, 141. The immunity and jurisdictional provisions form the foundation of that comprehensive scheme, and Congress deliberately tied them together: whenever an exception applies, the FSIA strips immunity and grants jurisdiction. Reading an additional minimum-contacts requirement into only one of the FSIA’s tethered immunity and jurisdictional provisions would weaken the link Congress forged and create a gap in the Act’s otherwise “comprehensive framework.” Republic of Austria v. Altmann, 541 U. S. 677, 699. Pp. 8–10.

(b) The Ninth Circuit’s two contrary arguments cannot override the plain meaning of the FSIA’s personal-jurisdiction provision. First, the fact that one of the immunity exceptions contains language resembling the minimum-contacts test says little about whether a jurisdictional provision located elsewhere categorically imposes that test. Second, the legislative history cited by the Ninth Circuit shows only that Congress believed the contacts set forth in the Act’s then-existing immunity exceptions satisfy due process, not that the personal-jurisdiction

provision silently includes an atextual minimum-contacts requirement . Pp. 11–12.

(c) Antrix’s alternative arguments—that the Fifth Amendment itself requires a showing of minimum contacts, that the claims at issue do not fall within the FSIA’s arbitration exception, and that the suit should be dismissed under forum non conveniens—were not addressed below by the Ninth Circuit. This Court declines to address them in the first instance. Pp. 12–13. Reversed and remanded.

ALITO, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

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CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd. v. Antrix Corp., 605 U.S. 223 (2025).

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