BNSF Railway Company v. Tanner Lynn

By statute, Minnesota requires nonresident corporations to apply for certificates of authority to transact business in the State. The Minnesota Supreme Court has construed that statute to extract applicants’ consent to general personal jurisdiction in Minnesota’s courts in exchange for permission to do business in the State. As a result of this statutory scheme, Minnesota claims the authority to adjudicate suits with no connection to the State brought by nonresident plaintiffs against nonresident corporations. In Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., 600 U.S. 122 (2023), this Court held that Pennsylvania’s consent-by-registration scheme did not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. But the Court left unresolved whether a State’s assertion of authority to resolve disputes with no jurisdictionally relevant connection to the forum was nonetheless unconstitutional under the dormant Commerce Clause. Id. at 127 n.3. The question presented is: Whether the Commerce Clause permits a State to extract consent to jurisdiction from nonresident corporations as a condition of their right to do business in the State, even for cases involving nonresident plaintiffs and out-of-state conduct. (I)