J. McIntyre and the Quagmire of Specific Personal Jurisdiction

A scrap-metal worker and the British manufacturer of the machine that allegedly hurt him squared off over the worker’s ability to sue the company in New Jersey state court in J. McIntyre Machinery Ltd. v. Nicastro,
131 S. Ct. 2780 (2011). Surprisingly fundamental questions were unresolved and, nearly two years later, still are.

Among those questions: When a foreign company places goods into commerce, what conduct by that company constitutes “minimum contacts” sufficient to subject it to the jurisdiction of a particular U.S. state’s courts?

In some cases, a defendant’s contacts, or lack of relationship, with the forum state make ...