Supreme Court revives damages suit against cruise ship companies that docked in Cuba

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: CNN

Supreme Court revives damages suit against cruise ship companies that docked in Cuba

By John Fritze
15 min ago
PUBLISHED May 21, 2026, 10:16 AM ET

The Supreme Court subjected the world’s largest cruise ship companies to a stiff headwind on Thursday, reviving a claim that alleged they trafficked in property confiscated by the Cuban government when they docked their ships in Havana.

The court’s decision is a loss for Royal Caribbean Cruises, Carnival Corporation and other companies and it landed at a moment when the Trump administration is ramping up economic and political pressure on Cuba.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion for an 8-1 court. Justice Elena Kagan was the only justice to dissent.

The decision landed a day after the Department of Justice indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro on charges that stem from his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft that killed four people, including three Americans. While announcing the charges, Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said President Donald Trump would soon make an announcement on the Cuban embargo.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/21/politics/supreme-court-cuba-ships

[drray23]

1. Setting up the excuse for invading Cuba.nt.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Another dumb decision.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Sounds like a bogus suit to me, as Kagan explains

Havana Docks Corporation built Havana’s piers in 1905 for the Cuban government on the condition that it would operate the port for 99 years. Castro’s government seized the docks shortly after coming to power.

The world’s largest cruise lines, the company said, “nonetheless moored their massive ships at the confiscated docks without Havana Docks’ authorization” from 2015 to 2019. In its appeal, the company described the case as the most important involving US foreign policy toward Cuba to reach the Supreme Court in decades.
...
“The docks belonged to the Cuban Government– not Havana Docks – all along,” she wrote in dissent. “What Havana Docks owned was only a property interest allowing it to use those docks for a specified time. And that time-limited interest expired in 2004 – more than a decade before the cruise lines ever used the docks.”

Wonder what the other 2 liberals were thinking?

[AZJonnie]

4. Perhaps they're thinking its acceptable to hear out the case

Thinking that eventually ruling on it entails answering a larger philosophical question about "liability" for anyone who does any sort of business with Cuba?

I dunno, that's all I can think of