The Vatican’s U.S. Lawyer May Bring the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act Back to the Supreme Court

In this fascinating profile of Jeffrey Lena, the lead (and perhaps only) lawyer for the Vatican in defending sex-abuse related lawsuits in the U.S., one also gets an update on the status of the various U.S. litigations against the Vatican.  The current Supreme Court petition for consideration is Holy See v. John Doe. The Court hasn’t yet decided whether to take the case, which raises a very boring but important question of foreign sovereign immunity. Since the Court seems to take lots of these cases, and it has sought the U.S. government’s views on this case, there is a decent chance it will make it to the Court.