On February 23, the judges listened to arguments in 2 cases focused on the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which allowed US citizens to seek compensation for assets confiscated by the Cuban government.
One case involves the US oil corporation ExxonMobil and the other involves the cruise lines Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises.
The Helms-Burton Act formalized the US trade embargo on Cuba, effective under a presidential decree since the John F. Kennedy administration in the 1960s.
Article III of the law has created a legal measure for US citizens whose assets are confiscated. These plaintiffs can claim higher damages in federal courts from entities that intentionally use assets, including Cuban state-owned entities and multinational corporations.
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have all suspended Article III of the Helms-Burton Act, to avoid diplomatic conflicts with allies such as Canada and Spain, countries whose businesses invest in Cuba.
President Donald Trump lifted the suspension order in 2019. This led to a wave of about 40 lawsuits filed in 2019 and 2020 and these lawsuits have gradually been brought to trial.
The Trump administration now declares Cuba an "abnormal and special threat" to US national security, cutting off Venezuela's oil flow to the Caribbean island nation, and threatening to impose tariffs on any country that supplies fuel to Cuba.
In the lawsuit at the Supreme Court, Exxon demanded that Cuban state-owned CIMEX compensate more than 1 billion USD for oil and gas assets seized in 1960.
Exxon, which filed a lawsuit in Washington in 2019, requested judges to reverse the 2024 ruling of the lower court, which ruled that Cuban state-owned enterprises facing claims under the Helms-Burton Act could cite foreign ownership immunity. That legal doctrine often protects foreign governments and their representatives from being sued in US courts.
CIMEX argued that the 2024 decision should be maintained because it "both respects and defends the Congressional ruling in this sensitive area".
Meanwhile, the remaining lawsuit is not related to sovereign immunity because the defendants are private tourism companies, not state-owned entities.
Havana Docks - a US corporation that built docks at Havana port before the Cuban revolution, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Florida, USA in 2019 demanding compensation from 4 cruise ship companies whose ships used these docks.
Four yacht operating companies used these wharves from 2016 to 2019, after President Obama eased travel restrictions on Cuba.
In the joint lawsuit, the companies argued that "paying hundreds of millions of USD for following the direction of the executive branch in reopening tourism to Cuba" is unreasonable.
A federal judge ruled that yacht companies must be held responsible for a total of 440 million USD because they claimed to have traded confiscated assets. The Court of Appeal rejected those rulings in 2025.
