Carter Page, et al. v. Democratic National Committee, et al.

This case involves a defamation suit brought by Carter Page, a U.S. citizen domiciled in Oklahoma, and his two solely-owned limited liability companies (which are likewise deemed citizens of Oklahoma) against several non-Oklahoma entities and individuals, including Perkins Coie LLP, an international law firm partnership. Although none of the defendants, and no Perkins Coie partner, is domiciled in Oklahoma, the court below nevertheless held that because a few U.S. citizen partners of Perkins Coie having no involvement with the matters at issue in the case but who are currently domiciled in Beijing, China, the “complete diversity” necessary for jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a) was destroyed. This Court held in Carden v. Arkoma Assocs., 494 U.S. 185, 195 (1990), that partnerships are citizens of every state in which an individual partner is a citizen. And it held in Newman-Green, Inc. v. Alfonzo-Larrain, 490 U.S. 826, 828-29 (1989), that U.S. citizens domiciled abroad may not be sued in diversity because they are essentially stateless—neither a citizen of a State nor a citizen or subject of a foreign state. The court below inferred from those two holdings that because a stateless citizen cannot be sued in diversity, a partnership with even one such stateless citizen destroys complete diversity even though no defendant shares the domicile of any plaintiff. The question presented is thus: Whether a U.S. Citizen domiciled abroad who is a member of a partnership defendant destroys the complete diversity required by 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a), when no defendant or partner of the partnership defendant shares domicile with any plaintiff.