Page:Mallory v. Norfolk Southern.pdf/18

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Cite as: 600 U. S. ____ (2023)
15

Opinion of Gorsuch, J.

ground personal jurisdiction—and consent may be manifested in various ways by word or deed. See, e.g., Insurance Corp. of Ireland v. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, 456 U. S. 694, 703 (1982); BNSF R. Co. v. Tyrrell, 581 U. S. 402, 415 (2017). See also post, at 4 (opinion of Alito, J.).[1]

That Norfolk Southern overreads International Shoe finds confirmation in that decision’s emphasis on “ ‘fair play and substantial justice.’ ” 326 U. S., at 316. Sometimes, International Shoe said, the nature of a company’s in-state activities will support jurisdiction over a nonconsenting corporation when those activities “give rise to the liabilities sued on.” Id., at 317. Other times, it added, suits “on causes of action arising from dealings entirely distinct from [the company’s] activities” in the forum State may be appropriate. Id., at 318. These passages may have pointed the way to what (much) later cases would label “specific jurisdiction” over claims related to in-forum activities and “general jurisdiction” in places where a corporation is incorporated or headquartered. See, e.g., Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S. A. v. Hall, 466 U. S. 408, 414–415, and nn. 8–9 (1984). But the fact remains that International Shoe itself eschewed any “mechanical or quantitative” test and instead endorsed a flexible approach focused on “the fair and orderly administration of the laws which it was the purpose of the due process clause to insure.” 326 U. S., at 319. Unquestionably, too, International Shoe saw this flexible standard as expanding—not contracting—state court jurisdiction. See Daimler, 571 U. S., at 128, and n. 6. As we later put the point: “The immediate effect of [International Shoe] was to increase the ability of the state courts to obtain personal jurisdiction over nonresident defendants.” Shaffer


  1. Because International Shoe allowed a suit against a corporation that had not registered to do business in the forum State, if it disturbed anything it was only this Court’s decision in Old Wayne, not Pennsylvania Fire. See supra, at 9–10; Perkins v. Benguet Consol. Mining Co., 342 U. S. 437, 443–444 (1952).