SC: Norfolk Southern Has No Say On Venue Of Lawsuits

Opponents of unmitigated corporate power celebrated when the US Supreme Court rejected Norfolk Southern's attempt to limit where companies can be sued, Kenny Stancil and Common Dreams reported for Raw Story.

Photo Insert: The decision vacates an earlier judgment by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and remands the case.

In a 5-4 opinion written by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonja Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, the high court ruled that Pennsylvania's "consent-by-registration" law "requiring an out-of-state firm to answer in the commonwealth any suits against it in exchange for status as a registered foreign corporation and the benefits that entails" does not violate the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

The decision vacates an earlier judgment by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and remands the case.

"This is really big," Slate's Mark Joseph Stern tweeted. Big business lawyers are "going to be furious with this decision."

He added: "This is big—and, in my view, good—because it allows states to exercise personal jurisdiction over corporations that do business within the state but are incorporated elsewhere, often in a jurisdiction that they deem more favorable to their interests.

Pennsylvania requires out-of-state corporations to file paperwork consenting to appear in Pennsylvania courts as a condition of doing business within the state.

Gorsuch says: Nothing about that scheme violates due process." Matt Stoller, director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project, also applauded the decision.

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