On Feb. 25 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Walden v. Fiore1 dealing with constitutional Due Process boundaries on a court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over a litigant. The ruling concerns a popular form of jurisdictional nexus that has been called by various names—e.g., “specific jurisdiction,” “longarm” or “single-act” statute, “effects test”—all of which are intended to distinguish this jurisdictional animal from the standard “general,” “doing business,” “presence,” or “all purpose” jurisdiction test. Walden has potential to upset some apple carts, to disturb existing or smug notions of in personam jurisdiction and to revitalize jurisdictional challenges by foreign defendants sued in a state where they had no or little direct activity.

A “specific” or “case-linked” jurisdictional nexus depends on an affiliation between the forum and the underlying controversy. Thus, an activity or an occurrence that takes place in the forum state may be subject to state court regulation for causes of action arising out of the defendant’s act within the state—provided that constitutional due process requirements are met. Walden expounds mightily on the limits of due process. Its ruling, reasoning and clarifications arguably could undo application of long-standing “longarm” statutes such as New York’s CPLR 302(a)1 and (a)3 in certain relatively common scenarios, some products liability or warranty lawsuits against foreign defendants among them.

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