By Zoe Tillman, From Legal Times

A federal district judge in Washington entered a $43.7 million judgment against the Russian Federation on Thursday as a sanction for rebuffing a U.S. court order to return thousands of Jewish religious texts seized in the early 20th century.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth entered the judgment over objections from the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of State. Lawyers for the government argued that any sanctions order could disrupt diplomatic relations, interfere with efforts to reach an out-of-court agreement, and lead to retaliation against the United States in foreign courts.

“The court is not persuaded that retaliatory ‘tit-for-tat’ litigation against the United States should be the basis for shirking its responsibility to make rulings consistent with law,” Lamberth wrote. “It would be a troubling precedent, indeed, to disregard the law and rule as the department prays.”

Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the United States has spent more than a decade fighting in court for the return of the Schneerson Collection—more than 12,000 sacred books and manuscripts seized in Russia in the early 20th century, and 25,000 pages of texts stolen by the Nazis and then taken as war loot by the Soviet Red Army. The U.S. government supports Chabad’s claim to the collection and facilitated diplomatic negotiations, which were unsuccessful.

The Russian government stopped participating in the U.S. litigation in 2009. In public statements, Russian officials maintained their claim to the collection and attacked Lamberth’s order in 2010 that they turn it over to Chabad.

In January 2013, Lamberth ordered sanctions against Russia—$50,000 per day—for refusing to comply with his order. Since 2014, Chabad’s lawyers have asked Lamberth to enter a judgment on the sanctions that would allow them to pursue Russian assets in the United States.

Steven Lieberman, a lawyer for Chabad with Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, said Lamberth’s order on Thursday meant his team could register the judgment in other states and look for Russian assets to satisfy the judgment. He said that consistent with earlier statements by Chabad, they would not go after Russian art and other cultural objects in the United States. The Russian government, citing fears that Chabad would try to claim Russian art on loan to U.S. museums, banned art loans in 2011.

“Chabad has a single goal, which is to get back its sacred books,” Lieberman said. “Now we have a very powerful tool to put pressure on the Russian Federation.”

A representative of the Russian Embassy in Washington did not return a request for comment on Thursday. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Lamberth wrote in his order that he was aware of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “bellicose statements” about the dispute over the collection as well as retaliatory litigation against the United States in Russian courts.

“Defendants have given clear indication that they do not intend to comply with this court’s orders,” Lamberth said. “The time has come to give plaintiff some of the tools to which it is entitled under law.”

Go to link below for the sanctions order in Agudas Chasidei Chabad v. Russian Federation.

IMAGE: Visitors look through books before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the library of the Schneerson family of Hasidic rabbis in the Jewish Museum in Moscow, Thursday, June 13, 2013. The vast collection of Jewish books and documents is the focus of a dispute between Moscow and Washington.

Credit: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

For more on this story go to:: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/legaltimes/id=1202736850405/Russia-Hit-With-43M-Sanction-For-Refusal-to-Return-Jewish-Books#ixzz3lRkjbxwO