In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld Pennsylvania’s “registration statute,” which requires corporations that register to do business in Pennsylvania to consent to the “general personal jurisdiction” of Pennsylvania. Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., No. 21-1168 (June 27, 2023).
This decision vacates the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling in Norfolk Southern’s favor and remands the case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for further consideration.
The Court’s decision reflects the same divisions apparent when it heard oral arguments last November. In a fractured decision with no one majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, vacated the lower court’s ruling and upheld the Pennsylvania statute. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh, dissented. Justice Samuel Alito concurred in part and concurred with the decision to vacate the lower court’s ruling.
Justice Gorsuch relied on Pennsylvania Fire Ins. Co. v. Gold Issue Mining Co., 243 U.S. 93 (1917), in which the Court upheld a similar Missouri law. He reasoned that by registering to do business in Pennsylvania (a state unique in that it requires companies to consent to general jurisdiction when registering to do business) for many years, the company took on the risk of consenting to personal jurisdiction in exchange for taking full advantage...
What This Story Is About Hundreds of people are now asking that their names be removed from a petition that seeks to end auto racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. Why It Matters Many of t...