Luis Manuel Rodriguez v. Imperial Brands, PLC.

USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 1 of 32 FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 24-11487 ____________________ LUIS MANUEL RODRIGUEZ, MARIA RODRIGUEZ, a.k.a. Maria Teresa Landa, ALFREDO RAMON FORNS, RAMON ALBERTO RODRIGUEZ, RAUL LORENZO RODRIGUEZ, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, versus IMPERIAL BRANDS, PLC., CORPORACION HABANOS, S.A., WPP, PLC., YOUNG & RUBICAM, LLC., BCW, LLC., a.k.a. Burson Cohn & Wolfe LLC, Defendants-Appellees. USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 2 of 32 2 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 1:20-cv-23287-DPG ____________________ Before JORDAN, NEWSOM, Circuit Judges, and HONEYWELL,∗ Dis- trict Judge. NEWSOM, Circuit Judge: The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, 22 U.S.C. §§ 6021–6091—more commonly known as the Helms- Burton Act—imposes liability on any person that “traffics” in prop- erty that was confiscated by the Cuban government on or after Jan- uary 1, 1959, and to which a U.S. national has a claim. The plaintiffs in this case are seven U.S. nationals and descendants of Ramón Ro- driguez Gutiérrez, who owned property confiscated by the Cuban government in 1961. The plaintiffs sued several corporations alleg- ing that they had “traffic[ked]” in that property within the meaning of the Helms-Burton Act. The district court granted the corpora- tions’ respective motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdic- tion. As relevant here, the plaintiffs now appeal the dismissal of their claims against two British corporations—Imperial Brands and WPP. Doing our best to apply the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, 606 U.S. 1 (2025), we hold ∗ Honorable Charlene E. Honeywell, United States District Judge for the Mid- dle District of Florida, sitting by designation. USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 3 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 3 that the federal courts lack personal jurisdiction over WPP and Im- perial, and we therefore affirm the district court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’ complaint. I A Congress enacted the Helms-Burton Act in 1996 “to strengthen international sanctions against the Castro govern- ment.” 22 U.S.C. § 6022(2). As relevant here, “Title III of the Act provides a private cause of action for U.S. nationals against those who knowingly traffic in property expropriated by the Cuban gov- ernment after the start of the Cuban Revolution.” Garcia-Bengochea v. Carnival Corp., 57 F.4th 916, 919 (11th Cir. 2023) (per curiam). Spe- cifically, the statute states: “[A]ny person that . . . traffics in prop- erty which was confiscated by the Cuban Government on or after January 1, 1959, shall be liable to any United States national who owns the claim to such property for money damages . . . .” 22 U.S.C. § 6082(a)(1)(A). The term “[t]raffics” is broadly defined: [A] person ‘traffics’ in confiscated property if that per- son knowingly and intentionally— (i) sells, transfers, distributes, dispenses, brokers, man- ages, or otherwise disposes of confiscated property, or purchases, leases, receives, possesses, obtains con- trol of, manages, uses, or otherwise acquires or holds an interest in confiscated property, (ii) engages in a commercial activity using or other- wise benefiting from confiscated property, or USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 4 of 32 4 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 (iii) causes, directs, participates in, or profits from, trafficking (as described in clause (i) or (ii)) by another person, or otherwise engages in trafficking (as de- scribed in clause (i) or (ii)) through another person, without the authorization of any United States na- tional who holds a claim to the property. Id. § 6023(13). B The plaintiffs are U.S. nationals who allege that their prop- erty in Cuba was wrongly confiscated and then trafficked in viola- tion of the Helms-Burton Act. They are the heirs and successors of Ramón Rodriguez Gutiérrez and the owners of a 90% interest in Ramón Rodriguez e Hijos Sociedad en Comandita (RRHSC). 1 RRHSC once owned and operated a cigarette factory in Havana, but after the Castro regime seized power, the Cuban government nationalized (among many others) the tobacco industry. As part of that takeover, the government took ownership of RRHSC and con- fiscated its property in 1961. At the time of the seizure, RRHSC’s property included a cigarette factory and an adjacent mixed-use building. 1 “We review the district court’s dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction de novo, accepting the allegations in the complaint as true.” Herederos De Roberto Gomez Cabrera, LLC v. Teck Res. Ltd., 43 F.4th 1303, 1307 (11th Cir. 2022), abro- gated on other grounds by Fuld, 606 U.S. at 16. USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 5 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 5 The plaintiffs here initially sued a handful of related compa- nies: • Habanos—a Cuban corporation controlled by the Cuban government, directly or through non-party Tabacuba, Cuba’s state-run tobacco monopoly. Habanos used the RRHSC factory to manufacture, sell, market, and distribute cigars. Tabacuba established offices in the mixed-use build- ing portion of the RRHSC property. • Imperial—a corporation incorporated and headquartered in the United Kingdom. In 2007, Imperial acquired a Spanish company, Altadis, S.A., which had a 50% noncontrolling ownership interest in Habanos. Imperial disposed of its in- direct ownership interest in Habanos in 2020. • WPP—a British holding company incorporated in the Baili- wick of Jersey with “dual-headquarters in London and New York City.” Second Am. Compl. ¶ 36, Dkt. No. 208. WPP was retained, along with its subsidiaries, by Imperial, either directly or through Habanos, to assist in marketing cigars “managed from or produced or stored” at the RRHSC prop- erty. Id. ¶¶ 20, 61. • Young & Rubicam LLC (Y&R) and Burson Cohn & Wolfe, LLC (BCW)—WPP’s U.S.-based advertising agency subsidi- aries, which were also retained to assist in marketing cigars produced at the RRHSC property. The subsidiaries are in- corporated in Delaware and have their principal places of business in New York. USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 6 of 32 6 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 The plaintiffs allege that from 2010 through October 2020, WPP, together with Y&R and BCW, “continuously trafficked in the RRHSC property by marketing and publicizing the Cuban tobacco products made, stored, shipped or managed from the RRHSC property.” Id. ¶ 21. Starting no later than 2017, plaintiffs continue, WPP, acting through Y&R and BCW, “assisted in setting up . . . of- ficial ‘portals’ . . . to market Habanos products on the U.S.-based social media platforms Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.” Id. ¶ 22. This marketing, according to plaintiffs, “was conducted, in part, through US websites, internet domains and other US services.” Id. ¶ 56. The plaintiffs do not allege that Habanos cigars were sold in the United States. Indeed, they admit in their brief that WPP’s U.S. “operations were not intended to reap profit from trafficking in the United States, where the products could not be sold legally.” Supp. Br. of Appellants at 37. But the plaintiffs allege that all the defend- ants “participated in, or profited from, trafficking of the RRHSC property by the Cuban government.” Second Am. Compl. ¶ 19. After the plaintiffs filed their second amended complaint, all the defendants moved to dismiss. Following some jurisdictional discovery, a magistrate judge recommended that the complaint be dismissed for improper venue. The district court affirmed the mag- istrate judge as to Habanos but remanded as to the other defend- ants for the magistrate judge to determine whether they had waived their improper-venue defenses. USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 7 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 7 On remand, the magistrate judge concluded that the re- maining defendants had indeed waived their venue defenses. Then, though, the magistrate judge recommended that Imperial’s and WPP’s motions to dismiss be granted for lack of personal jurisdic- tion and on the ground that the plaintiffs had failed to state a claim against them. The magistrate judge concluded that the plaintiffs had abandoned their argument that WPP’s U.S. subsidiaries were subject to personal jurisdiction. In fact, the judge determined that the plaintiffs had abandoned all personal-jurisdiction arguments save for the contention that WPP and Imperial were subject to per- sonal jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(k)(2), which provides as follows: For a claim that arises under federal law, serving a summons or filing a waiver of service establishes per- sonal jurisdiction over a defendant if: (A) the defend- ant is not subject to jurisdiction in any state’s courts of general jurisdiction; and (B) exercising jurisdiction is consistent with the United States Constitution and laws. Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(2). Following Eleventh Circuit precedent as it existed at the time, the magistrate judge recommended that the suit be dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction as to both WPP and Imperial be- cause the plaintiffs had failed to establish that either entity had the requisite “minimum contacts” with the United States. For support, the magistrate judge pointed to Fraser v. Smith, in which this Court had held that “the mere existence of a website that is visible in a USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 8 of 32 8 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 forum and that gives information about a company and its prod- ucts is not enough, by itself, to subject a defendant to personal ju- risdiction in that forum.” 594 F.3d 842, 847 (11th Cir. 2010) (citation modified). The magistrate judge explained that the plaintiffs’ the- ory of personal jurisdiction over Imperial hinged entirely on there being personal jurisdiction over WPP and, in turn, that personal jurisdiction over WPP hinged entirely on generally accessible web- sites that advertised Habanos’ products. The district court adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss for lack of per- sonal jurisdiction.2 On appeal, the plaintiffs contend that personal jurisdiction does exist over WPP and Imperial. Initially, the plaintiffs argued that the defendants had the necessary minimum contacts with the United States. Following the completion of the parties’ briefing, the Supreme Court decided Fuld, in which it held, as a matter of first impression, that the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause “does not incorporate the Fourteenth Amendment minimum con- tacts standard,” 606 U.S. at 23, and instead “permits a more flexible 2 The magistrate judge also dismissed for failure to state a claim, but the dis- trict court declined to adopt that portion of his recommendation after con- cluding that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the defendants. On appeal, the defendants urge us to affirm the district court’s dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction, but in the alternative they assert that we could affirm on the ground that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim. Because we affirm the dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction, we don’t reach the defendants’ al- ternative argument. USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 9 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 9 jurisdictional inquiry,” id. at 16. Fuld abrogated this Court’s deci- sions concluding that the personal-jurisdiction analyses under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments are the same. See, e.g., Herederos De Roberto Gomez Cabrera, LLC, 43 F.4th at 1308. Following oral argument, we ordered supplemental briefing on several Fuld-related questions. Most importantly, we asked what limits, if any, the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause imposes on a federal court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over a foreign defendant and, in light of those limits, whether personal jurisdic- tion exists in this case. Before us, the plaintiffs agree that the Fifth Amendment im- poses some limits on a federal court’s exercise of personal jurisdic- tion—namely, they say, by way of a “reasonableness” standard of the sort to which the Supreme Court adverted in Fuld—but they insist there is personal jurisdiction over the defendants in this case. The defendants, by contrast, deny that Fuld applies here at all, but contend in the alternative that even if it does, subjecting them to personal jurisdiction would be unreasonable. II Because of the seismic shift created by Fuld, we begin with a discussion of personal jurisdiction as it existed both before and after the Supreme Court’s decision. USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 10 of 32 10 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 A First, some personal-jurisdiction basics. “A court must have . . . power over the parties before it (personal jurisdiction) be- fore it can resolve a case.” Lightfoot v. Cendant Mortg. Corp., 580 U.S. 82, 95 (2017). This requirement “flows not from Art[icle] III, but from the Due Process Clause”—be it of the Fifth or Fourteenth Amendment. Ins. Corp. of Ireland v. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, 456 U.S. 694, 702 (1982). In either event, “[u]ntil the court has es- tablished personal jurisdiction . . . any assertion of judicial power over the party violates due process.” Id. at 706. For a case arising in federal court, personal jurisdiction is (ab- sent consent) proper only if two requirements are satisfied. As an initial matter, some federal statute or Federal Rule of Civil Proce- dure must authorize service of a summons on the defendant. See Omni Cap. Int’l v. Rudolf Wolff & Co., 484 U.S. 97, 104 (1987). Sepa- rately, the exercise of personal jurisdiction must comport with due process. See id.; see also Ins. Corp. of Ireland, 456 U.S. at 702–03. Let’s briefly unpack the service and constitutional requirements in turn. First, the rules regarding the service of summons. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4 authorizes several means of serving a non-resident defendant. Rule 4(k)(1)(A) is the most familiar. Under that Rule, service of a summons is effective to establish personal jurisdiction if the defendant “is subject to the jurisdiction of a court of general jurisdiction in the state where the district court is lo- cated.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(1)(A). In other words, Rule 4(k)(1)(A) looks to the law governing exercises of personal jurisdiction in the USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 11 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 11 courts of the state in which the federal court sits. Accordingly, a federal court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant provided (1) that service is effectuated in compliance with the state’s “long-arm” statute, see 4 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1068 (4th ed. 2026), and (2) the assertion of jurisdiction comports with the limi- tations imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause—more on that shortly. There are also two lesser-trod paths to establishing personal jurisdiction over non-resident defendants in federal court: Rule 4(k)(1)(C) and Rule 4(k)(2). Under Rule 4(k)(1)(C), service of pro- cess is effective to establish personal jurisdiction over a defendant “when authorized by a federal statute.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(1)(C). Rule 4(k)(2)—the “national long-arm statute,” Consol. Dev. Corp. v. Sherritt, Inc., 216 F.3d 1286, 1291 (11th Cir. 2000), abrogated for other reasons by Fuld, 606 U.S. 1—provides that “serving a sum- mons . . . establishes personal jurisdiction over a defendant if: (A) the defendant is not subject to jurisdiction in any state’s courts of general jurisdiction; and (B) exercising jurisdiction is consistent with the United States Constitution and laws.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(2). Notably, exercises of personal jurisdiction pursuant to Rules 4(k)(1)(C) and 4(k)(2) are subject to constitutional limitations imposed by the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, rather than the Fourteenth’s. See Herederos, 43 F.4th at 1307. On, then, to the constitutional constraints. Before Fuld, the Supreme Court’s “modern personal jurisdiction cases . . . ha[d] USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 12 of 32 12 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 grappled only with the limitations imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment on state courts.” Fuld, 606 U.S. at 11. To be clear, that’s not because personal-jurisdiction cases didn’t arise in federal court, but because Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(k)(1)(A) often ap- plies. So let’s start with the standard that governs exercises of per- sonal jurisdiction under the Fourteenth Amendment. The canoni- cal description comes from International Shoe Co. v. Washington, in which the Supreme Court “held that a tribunal’s authority depends on the defendant’s having such ‘contacts’ with the forum State that ‘the maintenance of the suit’ is ‘reasonable, in the context of our federal system of government,’ and ‘does not offend traditional no- tions of fair play and substantial justice.’” Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 592 U.S. 351, 358 (2021) (quoting Int’l Shoe Co. v. State of Wash., Off. of Unemployment Comp. & Placement, 326 U.S. 310, 316–17 (1945)). This “contacts”-based focus on “the defendant’s relationship to the forum State” led the Court to recognize two types of per- sonal jurisdiction: “general (sometimes called all-purpose) jurisdic- tion and specific (sometimes called case-linked) jurisdiction.” Id. at 358 (citation modified). Where the defendant is “fairly regarded as at home” in a particular state, a court there has general jurisdiction and “may hear any claim against that defendant.” Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Ct. of Cal., San Francisco Cnty., 582 U.S. 255, 262 (2017). If a state court doesn’t have general jurisdiction, then it must have specific jurisdiction over the particular case. “In order USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 13 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 13 for a state court to exercise specific jurisdiction, ‘the suit’ must ‘aris[e] out of or relat[e] to the defendant’s contacts with the fo- rum.’” Id. (quoting Daimler AG v. Bauman, 571 U.S. 117, 127 (2014)). Put simply, to establish personal jurisdiction over a non-resident de- fendant, a plaintiff must show—in one way or the other—that the defendant had the requisite “minimum contacts” with the state. For years, this Court had held that the personal-jurisdiction analysis under the Fifth Amendment mirrored that under the Four- teenth. See Herederos, 43 F.4th at 1308; Oldfield v. Pueblo De Bahia Lora, S.A., 558 F.3d 1210, 1219 n.25 (11th Cir. 2009); Fraser, 594 F.3d at 850; Sec. & Exch. Comm’n v. Marin, 982 F.3d 1341, 1349 (11th Cir. 2020). Accordingly, we repeatedly said that “[t]he exercise of per- sonal jurisdiction comports with due process when (1) the nonres- ident defendant has purposefully established minimum contacts with the forum and (2) the exercise of jurisdiction will not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.” Herederos, 43 F.4th at 1310 (quoting Marin, 982 F.3d at 1349). Then came Fuld. B The Supreme Court’s decision in Fuld made one thing abso- lutely clear: The Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause “does not incorporate the Fourteenth Amendment minimum contacts stand- ard.” Fuld, 606 U.S. at 23 (emphasis added). Although the Court was considerably less clear about exactly what personal jurisdiction “standard” the Fifth Amendment does embody, it provided hints. Because Fuld is the latest word, it merits extended attention. USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 14 of 32 14 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 In Fuld, the Court confronted a case arising under the Pro- moting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (PSJVTA), which authorizes the exercise of personal jurisdiction over the Pal- estine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian Authority (PA) in Anti-Terrorism Act cases in the event that either entity en- gages in certain predicate conduct. The question was whether the exercise of jurisdiction in that case comported with the Fifth Amendment. Id. at 5. Making that determination required the Court to confront a question it had long reserved: Whether the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause “impose[s] the same re- strictions on the exercise of personal jurisdiction by a federal court” as are imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Pro- cess Clause. Id. at 11. The Supreme Court ultimately held that the Fifth Amend- ment “necessarily permits a more flexible jurisdictional inquiry” than the Fourteenth Amendment because the two provisions’ re- spective Due Process Clauses address different sovereigns. Id. at 16. The Fourteenth Amendment’s due process limitations, the Court reasoned, are “driven by two principles: (1) treating defendants fairly, and (2) protecting interstate federalism.” Id. at 13 (citation modified). But, the Court observed, “interstate federalism con- cerns . . . do not apply to limitations under the Fifth Amendment upon the power of the Federal Government and the corollary au- thority of the federal courts.” Id. at 15. Because “the United States is a distinct sovereign,” id. at 16 (quoting J. McIntyre Mach., Ltd. v. Nicastro, 564 U.S. 873, 884 (2011)), and because “the Constitution USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 15 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 15 confers upon the Federal Government—and it alone—both nation- wide and extraterritorial authority,” id. at 15, the Fifth Amendment does not mechanically incorporate the Fourteenth Amendment’s minimum-contacts standard, id. at 16. So again, the Fuld Court clearly decoupled the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments’ personal-jurisdiction analyses. Beyond that, the Court’s opinion is less definitive. Most notably for our purposes, the Court didn’t expressly adopt a particular due process standard applicable to personal-jurisdiction inquiries under the Fifth Amendment—it did not, in its words, “purport to delineate the outer bounds of the Federal Government’s power, consistent with due process, to hale foreign defendants into U.S. courts” under the Fifth Amendment. Id. at 18. It held only that the Fifth Amend- ment permits an exercise of personal jurisdiction under a statute like the PSJVTA, which “ties federal jurisdiction to conduct closely related to the United States that implicates important foreign pol- icy concerns.” Id. To begin to understand the constraints that the Fifth Amendment imposes on the assertion of personal jurisdiction, we turn to a careful examination of Fuld and the statute whose consti- tutionality was assessed, the PSJVTA. That statute authorizes the assertion of personal jurisdiction over the PLO and PA in Anti-Ter- rorism Act cases if either entity (1) makes a direct or indirect pay- ment to an imprisoned terrorist or that terrorist’s family “for com- mitting any act of terrorism that injured or killed a national of the United States,” 18 U.S.C. § 2334(e)(1)(A), or (2) 15 days after the USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 16 of 32 16 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 statute’s enactment continues to maintain a physical presence in the United States or “conducts any activity while physically present in the United States,” id. § 2334(e)(1)(B). The Court concluded that the statute was sufficiently nar- row relative to its foreign-policy objectives to avoid due process concerns, Fuld, 606 U.S. at 19–23, and that it didn’t offend any “rea- sonableness” requirement to assert personal jurisdiction over the PLO and PA, id. at 23–24. Regarding the statute’s tailoring, the Court emphasized that the PSJVTA applies only to a “narrow cate- gory of claims,” has targeted triggering predicates, and “limits ju- risdiction to only two enumerated nonsovereign foreign entities.” Id. at 20–21. “It is permissible,” the Court wrote, “for the Federal Government to craft a narrow jurisdictional provision that ensures, as part of a broader foreign policy agenda, that Americans injured or killed by acts of terror have an adequate forum in which to vin- dicate their right to ATA compensation.” Id. at 21. Regarding the governing Fifth Amendment standard, the most the Court was willing to say was this: “[T]he prospect re- mains that the Fifth Amendment might entail [an] ‘inquiry into the reasonableness of the assertion of jurisdiction in the particular case.’” Id. at 23 (quoting Asahi Metal Indus. Co. v. Superior Ct. of Cal., Solano Cnty., 480 U.S. 102, 115 (1987)). “Reasonableness,” the Court said, “will depend in each case ‘on an evaluation of several factors,’ including ‘[1] the burden on the defendant, [2] the interests of the forum State, and [3] the plaintiff’s interest in obtaining relief.’” Id. at 24 (quoting Asahi, 480 U.S. at 113). USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 17 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 17 On the facts before it, the Court concluded with respect to the second listed factor that the United States “has an exceedingly compelling interest” in providing American victims of interna- tional terrorism with a forum to hold perpetrators to account. Id. So too, with respect to the third, the Court observed that “Ameri- can plaintiffs have a strong interest in seeking justice through an ATA damages action in U. S. courts.” Id. In analyzing the first, bur- den-on-the-defendant factor, the Court noted that the defendants hadn’t “complain[ed] of any lack of notice or contend[ed] that liti- gating these cases in the United States would force them to bear an unfair or unmanageable burden.” Id. Moreover, the Court rea- soned that PLO and PA couldn’t plausibly assert such a burden be- cause they (1) are “sophisticated international organizations” with “billion-dollar budgets” that “govern a territory recognized as a sovereign state by many other countries”; (2) have had a continual “longstanding presence in the United States”; (3) were on notice that they could be haled into U.S. courts for these types of cases because they had litigated them in the United States “for decades”; and (4) by virtue of the narrowly drafted personal jurisdiction pred- icates in the PSJVTA, had “clear notice” that “engag[ing] in certain specified conduct would open them up to potential federal court jurisdiction.” Id. at 24–25 (citation modified). Ultimately, the Court concluded that “the PSJVTA easily comports with the fac- tors we have previously applied to determine the reasonableness of the exercise of jurisdiction even under the Fourteenth Amend- ment.” Id. at 23–24 (citation modified). USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 18 of 32 18 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 III On, then, to this case. The plaintiffs argue that the federal courts may assert personal jurisdiction over the defendants under either Rule 4(k)(1)(C) or Rule 4(k)(2). We conclude that the Helms- Burton Act does not authorize the assertion of personal jurisdic- tion and, therefore, that Rule 4(k)(1)(C) does not apply here. Re- garding Rule 4(k)(2), we conclude—in line with the Court’s opin- ion in Fuld—that the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause im- poses a “reasonableness” standard and that the assertion of per- sonal jurisdiction here over either WPP or Imperial would not be reasonable. A First, plaintiffs’ Rule 4(k)(1)(C) argument. As a reminder, that Rule states that service of process is effective to establish per- sonal jurisdiction over a defendant “when authorized by a federal statute.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(1)(C). Both before the district court and in its opening briefing to this Court, the plaintiffs argued that personal jurisdiction was authorized under Rule 4(k)(2) alone. It wasn’t until briefing had concluded that, in a notice of supple- mental authority, the plaintiffs argued for the first time that Rule 4(k)(1)(C) applied because, they said, “Helms-Burton authorizes personal jurisdiction based on trafficking in wrongfully confiscated property.” Pls.’ Notice of Supp. Authority at 1–2, June 30, 2025 (cit- ing 22 U.S.C. § 6081(9)-(11)). The defendants contend that the plaintiffs forfeited any Rule 4(k)(1)(C) argument and that, even if they didn’t, the Helms-Burton USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 19 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 19 Act doesn’t authorize personal jurisdiction here. Because we agree with the defendants that the Helms-Burton Act doesn’t authorize personal jurisdiction over the defendants, we needn’t wade into the forfeiture dispute. In Omni Capital, the Supreme Court declined to hold that a federal statute “implied[ly]” authorized nationwide service of pro- cess, emphasizing that Congress knows how to provide for such service explicitly when it wants to. See 484 U.S. at 106–08. This case is similar. The plaintiffs here don’t point to any language in the Helms-Burton Act that expressly authorizes personal jurisdiction over foreign defendants. Instead, they argue that the authorization is implied by a statutory finding that “[t]he United States Govern- ment has an obligation to its citizens to provide protection against wrongful confiscations by foreign nations and their citizens, includ- ing the provision of private remedies.” 22 U.S.C. § 6081(10). That isn’t an express authorization—nor, we think, is it even particularly compelling evidence of implied authorization. Following the logic and rationale of Omni Capital, we decline to hold that Helms-Bur- ton impliedly authorizes personal jurisdiction over foreign defend- ants. Accordingly, Rule 4(k)(1)(C) is inapplicable. B We proceed, then, to the plaintiffs’ argument that we may exercise personal jurisdiction over the defendants under Rule 4(k)(2). We begin by addressing Fuld’s impact on any Rule 4(k)(2) USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 20 of 32 20 Opinion of the Court 24-11487 analysis. We then proceed to apply the “reasonableness” test sug- gested by the Court in Fuld. 1 Rule 4(k)(2) has two requirements. Service of process estab- lishes personal jurisdiction over a defendant on a federal claim if “(A) the defendant is not subject to jurisdiction in any state’s courts of general jurisdiction; and (B) exercising jurisdiction is consistent with the United States Constitution and laws.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(2). For purposes of Rule 4(k)(2), “the relevant constitutional provision . . . is the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which applies to the federal government and its courts, not the Four- teenth’s, which applies to the states.” Herederos, 43 F.4th at 1307. Because Fuld interpreted the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause, Fuld applies squarely to cases, like this one, in which the plaintiffs assert that they established personal jurisdiction via Rule 4(k)(2). WPP and Imperial contend that Fuld is irrelevant to our Rule 4(k)(2) analysis because Fuld “is limited to cases where Congress has authorized personal jurisdiction such that service is permitted under Rule 4(k)(1)(C).” Supp. Br. of Appellees at 3. Respectfully, we disagree. True, the Fuld Court acknowledged that “[a]ny differ- ence between the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments is . . . impli- cated in only a subset of federal cases, such as those in which per- sonal jurisdiction is—as in the PSJVTA—‘authorized by a federal statute.’” Fuld, 606 U.S. at 11 (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 4(k)(1)(C)). USCA11 Case: 24-11487 Document: 90-1 Date Filed: 07/23/2026 Page: 21 of 32 24-11487 Opinion of the Court 21 But the Court did not in that passage limit its holding exclusively to Rule 4(k)(1)(C) cases, in particular. Instead, the Court said that Rule 4(k)(1)(C) cases are exemplary of the “subset of federal cases”—note the “such as”—in which the difference between the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment matters. Id. Rule 4(k)(2) cases also fall within that subset. WPP and Imperial separately contend that a Fourteenth- Amendment-style minimum-contacts requirement should be read into Rule 4(k)(2) because the Advisory Committee Notes to the 1993 amendments to Rule 4 suggest that the drafters expected a nationwide minimum-contacts analysis to be relevant to the Rule’s application. See Oldfield v. Pueblo De Bahia Lora, S.A., 558 F.3d 1210, 1218 n.23 (11th Cir. 2009) (quoting Advisory Committee’s Note to 1993 amendments to Rule 4). Specifically, those notes state that subsection (k)(2) was added to “correct[] a gap in the enforcement of federal law”—that is, to fix the “problem” presented when the defendant was a non-resident of the United States having contacts with the United States suffi- cient to justify the application of United States law and to satisfy federal standards of forum selection, but having insufficient contact with