Limits on State Courts' Jurisdictional Reach

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a closely watched California Supreme Court ruling, finding that California state courts did not have specific jurisdiction to hear the claims of nonresident plaintiffs in a class action associated with Plavix, a Bristol-Myers Squibb Company drug. The 8–1 opinion concluded that Bristol-Myers’s extensive contacts with California, including its marketing and distribution of the drug in California as well as its research and development centers there, were not sufficient to establish specific personal jurisdiction of nonresident plaintiffs’ claims. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of Cal., 582 U.S. ___ (2017).