CCL President Robert S. Peck reviewed upcoming U.S. Supreme Court cases that involve civil justice issues at the annual preview hosted by the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University Antonin Scalia School of Law, along with John Beisner of the Skadden Arps law firm.

      The conversation started with Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway, a case involving personal jurisdiction under Pennsylvania's corporate registration statute, which has treated registration as consent to general jurisdiction for more than a century and was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1917. Modern caselaw and the Court's new heavy emphasis on originalism, the interpretative theory that treats the objective of those who framed and ratified the Constitution as determinative of its meaning, brings new questions into play on the state statute's validity. 

      Peck explained that, with Justice Gorsuch's recent concurrence suggesting a new look at fundamental concepts of personal jurisdiction, the case could provide a launching point for a new jurisprudence. He distinguished what was at issue in the Pennsylvania case, where the injury took place out of state, with a Georgia case also on the Supreme Court's docket, where there were more substantial connections to the state that justified the assertion of personal jurisdiction, indicating the Court could provide guidance.

      Other cases discussed included National Pork Production Council v. Ross (Dormant Commerce Clause), Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. FTC (whether a corporation under investigation by an independent federal agency could bypass the Administrative Procedures Act and challenge the agency's constitutionality in federal district court), and Health and Hospital Corporation v. Televsky (private right of action under statutes passed pursuant to the Spending Clause).

      Peck also highlighted two petitions from CCL's docket: Recht v. Morrisey (commercial speech) and Douglass v. NYK Line (personal jurisdiction).