U.S. courthouses appear to be closed to Holocaust survivors and their heirs seeking to recover 80-year-old ill-gotten gains from the Hungarian government, which was under Nazi control during World War II.

During a hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, the justices seemed largely critical of the survivors' argument that American courts have jurisdiction because proceeds from property allegedly stolen by the Hungarian government in the 1940s was "commingled" in its general fund, much of which was spent in the United States.