Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court.

I'm John Carlo Conoparo.

I'm Zach Smith.

And welcome to SCOTUS 101, where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court,

what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government.

Welcome to a surprise episode of SCOTUS 101.

Last week, I told you you'd be getting a break from us.

And yet, here we are. So what happened, G.C.?

Well, the court made me do it, is my excuse.

As I mentioned last week, the court is on a working recess during the first two weeks of February,

and it has not, in the past, for many years, released opinions during those weeks.

But let me guess, it did release opinions this year.

Yes, it did. On a surprise Wednesday issue, we got two opinions.

So what's up first?

The first case is the Federal Republic of Germany versus Philip.

This is the Nazi art case.

The respondents in this case, plaintiffs below, were heirs of German Jewish art dealers

who formed a consortium during the waning years of the Weimar Republic

to purchase a collection of very valuable medieval German relics.

The heirs allege that when the Nazi government rose to power, it unlawfully coerced the

consortium into selling the collection for a third of its value.

So the question in the case is whether the heirs could sue the government

...