One of our cases of the day, Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 637 F.3d 783 (7th Cir. 2011), is on SCOTUSBlog’s list of petitions to watch for tomorrow’s conference at the Supreme Court. The case involved efforts of a victim of a Hamas terror attack in Israel to collect on a default judgment against Iran by looking to collections of Persian art on loan to American museums. The Seventh Circuit held that the property was immune from execution under the FSIA even though Iran had defaulted in the underlying litigation and that Rubin could not take generalized asset discovery from Iran, given the presumptive immunity of Iran’s state property. Rubin is seeking a writ of certiorari to review the Seventh Circuit’s decision on the issue of discovery in aid of execution.

Here, with a hat-tip to SCOTUSBlog, are the papers the Supreme Court will be considering:

• Rubin’s petition for a writ of certiorari
• Iran’s brief in opposition to the petition
• The University of Chicago’s brief in opposition to the petition
• Rubin’s reply

Interestingly, NML Capital, one of Argentina’s bondholders, submitted a brief as amicus curiae in support of Rubin. We reviewed NML’s cases in the Second Circuit and the UK Supreme Court on July 8, 2011 and on its efforts in France and Belgium on November 16, 2011. Obviously the Argentine bondholders would be delighted if they could apply the liberal asset discovery rules applicable in ordinary civil litigation to their sovereign debt claims!

We will keep you posted on this case. I for one am rooting for Supreme Court review, although statistically speaking every petitioner for certiorari faces an uphill battle!

Photo credit: yeowatzup (license)