The Supreme Court just ruled 8-1 that when communists steal your property, the corporations who profit from it don't get to keep the money. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, opened the door for an American company to collect $110 million from four cruise lines that happily shipped nearly one million passengers through docks Fidel Castro's regime seized back in 1960.
I know, I know — the radical notion that theft is still theft even when it happened 66 years ago. Somebody alert the law schools.
Here's the backstory. Havana Docks Corp., an American company, operated the Port of Havana facilities starting in 1928. They ran those docks for over three decades until Castro's communist regime confiscated everything in 1960. Just took it. Because that's what communists do — they see something nice and they take it.
Fast forward to 1996, when Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act — officially the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act — which gave American companies the legal right to sue anyone "trafficking" in their confiscated property. For years, successive administrations suspended the key provision. Then President Trump, during his first term, let that suspension lapse. Havana Docks finally had its day in court.
And what a day it was. The company sued Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Carnival Corp., and MSC Cruises for using the stolen facilities. Between 2016 and 2019, these corporate giants transported nearly one million passengers through those docks — docks that belonged to an American company. The courts awarded $110 million in judgments against the four cruise lines.
The cruise companies, naturally, argued they shouldn't have to pay because Cuba had supposedly granted them fresh permission to use the facilities. Justice Thomas wasn't buying it. "At that point, the docks were tainted as confiscated property," he wrote in the majority opinion for Case 24-983. Translation: you can't launder stolen goods just because the thief gave you a receipt.
Eight justices agreed. Eight.
The lone dissenter? Justice Elena Kagan, who characterized Havana Docks Corp. as merely "a renter with a lease" that was set to expire in 2004 anyway. Leave it to the liberal wing — well, what's left of it — to side with the communists and the billion-dollar cruise industry over the Americans who actually got robbed.
Let's be clear about what happened here. Castro's thugs stole American property. Corporate America knew it was stolen. They used it anyway because the money was too good. And now, thanks to Justice Thomas and seven of his colleagues, they're going to pay for it.
This ruling, handed down May 21, 2026, is even sweeter considering that the DOJ just indicted Raúl Castro — Fidel's brother — the very next day. Bad week to be a Castro apologist.
The cruise lines will survive writing a $110 million check. But the principle matters more than the payout. Stolen property is stolen property, whether it's your neighbor's lawnmower or an entire port facility seized by a communist dictator. The Supreme Court just confirmed what the rest of us already knew.
As reported by RedState, this is exactly the kind of ruling that reminds you the system can still work — when the right people are on the bench.