Cite as: 539 U. S. 396 (2003)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
York banks holding accounts of Russian nationals that the Soviet Government had earlier nationalized. The Federal Government sued to recover the accounts thus assigned to it. Applying New York law, the lower courts refused to enforce the assignment; those courts held that the account-nationalization upon which the assignment rested contravened public policy. Id., at 325-327. This Court reversed, concluding that "no state policy can prevail against the international compact here involved." Id., at 327. The Litvinov Assignment clearly assigned to the United States the claims in issue; the enforceability of that assignment, the Court stressed, "is not and cannot be subject to any curtailment or interference on the part of the several states." Id., at 331.
United States v. Pink, 315 U. S. 203 (1942), again addressed state-imposed obstacles to the Litvinov Assignment. Reiterating its holding in Belmont, the Court confirmed that no State may "deny enforcement of a claim under the Litvinov Assignment because of an overriding policy of the State." 315 U. S., at 222. Pointing both to the assignment itself and to a later exchange of diplomatic correspondence clarifying its scope, see id., at 224-225, and n. 7, the Court saw no "serious doubt that claims of the kind here in question were included" in the "broad and inclusive" assignment, id., at 224.
Four decades later, in Dames & Moore v. Regan, 453 U. S. 654 (1981), the Court gave effect to an executive agreement arising out of the Iran hostage crisis. One of the agree-ment's announced "purpose[s]" was "to terminate all litigation as between the Government of each party and the nationals of the other, and to bring about the settlement and termination of all such claims through binding arbitration." Id., at 665 (quoting the agreement). The agreement called for the formation of an Iran-United States Claims Tribunal to arbitrate claims not settled within six months. Ibid. In addition, under the agreement the United States undertook
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