The other day, the United States Supreme Court heard argument in
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court, No. 16-466
(U.S. argued April 24, 2017) ("BMS") (link to transcript). We've
blogged
many
times
about
the
issues in Bristol-Myers-Squibb. In BMS, the
United States government, as amicus curiae, appeared in
support of the defense position that personal jurisdiction did not
be extend to suits in state courts brought by non-resident
plaintiffs against non-resident defendants.
Here's a description of what went down.
Justice Sotomayor, who had been the sole dissenter from the
personal jurisdiction rationale in Daimler AG v. Bauman,
134 S.Ct. 746 (2014), was seemingly hostile to the defense
position. Her initial questioning suggested that not allowing an
in-state resident's successful assertion of personal
jurisdiction to supply jurisdiction for out-of-state residents who
simply took the same product in their home states somehow destroyed
pendent
