Last term, Chief Justice Roberts warned that Dobbs would cause a "serious jolt to the legal system." Which case from the term-that-just-finished caused the most significant jolt? It's not Students for Fair Admissions. Universities will quickly find ways to cheat the ruling and wait to be sued. It will take years to suppress the massive resistance–assuming the Court is committed to the enterprise. And don't say Moore v. Harper. The "strong" version of the Independent State Legislature Doctrine was never going to be approved. At most, a bare majority of the Court would probably adopt Chief Justice Rehnquist's concurrence from Bush v. Gore. (I remain flummoxed why scholars who rejected the existence of the ISL doctrine are claiming victory by a decision that accepted the "weak" version of ISL.) And don't say Allen v. Milligan. That decision, at most, will probably create a few more majority-minority districts in the South, which may flip the House, but the Court did not break much new legal ground.
No, the decision this term that has the potential to create the biggest legal "jolt" was Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. The facts are fairly straightforward: Norfolk Southern Railways is headquartered in Virginia; the plaintiff is a citizen of Virginia; the plaintiff allegedly suffered injuries as an employee of the railroad in Virginia and Ohio. But the Plaintiff filed suit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Why? Justice Alito hints at one possible answer: the venue "is reputed to be especially favorable to tort plaintiffs." Of course, that is the plaintiffs' decision. As a general matter, the plaintiff gets to decide where to sue a defendant. But the defendant has defenses–specifically, that a given court lacks personal jurisdiction over the defendant. And that's what Norfolk Southern argued. The railroad is not headquartered in the Pennsylvania, so there is no "general" jurisdiction. And the railroad did not have "minimum contacts" with Pennsylvania, so there is no "specific" jurisdiction. But Pennsylvania has an unusual law: any business that registers to transact business in the state submits to jurisdiction of Pennsylvania state courts. (Or at least this is how the plaintiff reads the statute.)
The conflict is palpable. Norfolk Southern wants to stay out of Philadelphia, which is reputedly favorable to plaintiffs. And Mallory, as Justice Alito suggested, chose that forum deliberately. The stakes of this case could not be greater. If Mallory prevails (and whether he ultimately prevails is still up in the air), every corporation that has registered to do business in Pennsylvania will now be at the mercy of Philadelphia trial courts. And other states can follow-suit: California, Illinois, Washington, and so on. This risk is severe for businesses. (The Washington Supreme Court, in particular, reads the Due Process clause through the lens of anti-racism.)
