U.S. SUPREME COURT DEALS SETBACK TO JEWISH HEIRS

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday delivered a setback to a bid by the heirs of Jewish art dealers to win restitution from Germany in American courts for what they called a coerced sale forced by the former Nazi government in 1935 of a collection of precious medieval religious art. The justices in a 9-0 ruling decided that the lawsuit cannot proceed under a u.s. law called the Foreign Sovereign

Immunities Act that limits the jurisdiction of American courts in claims against foreign governments. They threw out a lower court’s decision that had let the lawsuit move forward in federal court in Washington. The case concerns a collection of ecclesiastical relics known as the Welfenschatz that was sold by the Jewish art dealers. The collection dates primarily to the 11th to 15th centuries.