Page:Republic of Sudan v. Rick Harrison.pdf/25

Rh process directed to the attention of the foreign minister. A foreign state and its embassy are free to reject some or all packets addressed to the attention of the foreign minister. But, as detailed above, Sudan has pointed to nothing in the record suggesting that its embassy refused service, or that its embassy address was not a place at which its foreign minister could be reached. On these facts, I would hold that the service packet was properly “addressed and dispatched by the clerk of the court to the head of the ministry of foreign affairs.” §1608(a)(3).

Instead of focusing on whether service at an embassy satisfies the FSIA, the Court articulates a bright-line rule: To comply with §1608(a)(3), “[a] service packet must be addressed and dispatched to the foreign minister at the minister’s office in the foreign state.” Ante, at 17 (emphasis added). Whatever virtues this rule possesses, the Court’s interpretation is not the “most natural reading” of §1608(a)(3), ante, at 6.

The Court focuses on the foreign minister’s “customary office” or “place of work,” ante, at 9, 7, but these terms appear nowhere in §1608. The FSIA requires that the service packet be “addressed and dispatched” to a particular person—“the head of the ministry of foreign affairs.” §1608(a)(3). It does not further require that the package be addressed and dispatched to any particular place. While I agree with the Court that sending the service packet to the foreign ministry is one way to satisfy §1608(a)(3), that is different from saying that §1608(a)(3) requires service exclusively at that location.

The absence of a textual foundation for the majority’s rule is only accentuated when §1608(a)(3) is compared to §1608(a)(4), the adjacent paragraph governing service through diplomatic channels. Under that provision, the