[2] The administration's amicus curiae brief condemned the terrorist attack but argued that allowing service of process at embassies would undermine the principle of mission inviolability.

[3] In October 2000, the USS Cole, a United States Navy destroyer, was attacked by suicide bombers in the port of Aden in Yemen.

[1][6] In July 2004, family members of the sailors filed a lawsuit against Sudan for more than $100 million, alleging the Sudanese government provided support to the attackers and were complicit in the deaths of their relatives on the USS Cole.

[1][6] In March 2007, the district court found in favor of the sailors' families, ruling that Sudan was liable for the USS Cole attack after a two-day bench trial.

In 2012, the plaintiffs in this suit prevailed in a default judgment and were awarded close to $315 million in compensatory and punitive damages following Sudan's failure to appear.

Alito's opinion also noted that this interpretation is consistent with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as well as the United States's own policy of not accepting service at American embassies when the US government is sued overseas.

[11] In his dissenting opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas stated that, in the absence of an indication to the contrary, an embassy should be appropriate places to serve legal paper's to that country's foreign minister.