NJ Transit Can Be Sued in Other States, Supreme Court Says (1)

New Jersey Transit isn’t an arm of the state and can be sued for damages outside its borders, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously.

The opinion on Wednesday authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor could have significant implications for hundreds of state-created entities that conduct operations beyond their home states.

The case tested negligence claims from two men injured in bus accidents in New York and Pennsylvania.

In one case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that NJ Transit functions as an arm of the state and is shielded from suits brought outside New Jersey under the doctrine of interstate sovereign immunity. New York’s Court of Appeals reached the opposite conclusion.

The Supreme Court considers NJ Transit to be an entity with “typical corporate powers,” and has “never once found that a corporation that was liable for its own judgments to be an arm of the state, even when the state had significant control over the entity,” the opinion said.

The case was remanded to the lower courts for further proceedings.

The case is Galette v. New Jersey Transit Corporation, U.S., No. 24-1021, argued on 1/14/26.