SCOTUS 12/7 Conference: Cert Petition re FSIA

Next Thursday, the Court is scheduled to decide the cert. petition in Powerex Corp. v. Reliant Energy Services, 05-85 (petition from CA9). David Frederick from Kellogg Huber has filed the petition, available courtesy of SCOTUS Blog here. The SG has recommended that the Court grant on the first question. CA9 opinion available here.

QUESTIONS PRESENTED
1. Whether an entity that is wholly and beneficially owned by a foreign state’s instrumentality, and whose sole purpose is to perform international treaty and trade agreement obligations for the benefit of the foreign state’s citizens, may nonetheless be denied status as an “organ of a foreign state” under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (“FSIA”), 28 U.S.C. § 1603(b)(2), based on an analysis of sovereignty that ignores the circumstances surrounding the entity’s creation, conduct, and operations on behalf of its government.

2. Whether an entity is an “organ of a foreign state” under the FSIA when its shares are completely owned by a governmental corporation that, by statute, performs all of its acts as the agent of the foreign sovereign.