AFSA asks Supreme Court to Take Up Due Process Case
AFSA joined with other trade associations in asking the Supreme Court to take up a due process case. Ally Financial Inc. v. Alberta Haskins, et al. raises an important question – whether, in a class action, the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment permits a court to exercise specific personal jurisdiction over the defendant with respect to all class members’ claims, even though some of the class members are in different locations.
The petition stated that if the Supreme Court does not correct the lower court’s holding, it would cause substantial harm to businesses and to the judicial system. “It would enable plaintiffs to make an end-run around the Due Process Clause by bringing nationwide class actions anywhere they could find one plaintiff with the requisite connection to the forum. That, in turn, would eliminate the predictability that due process affords corporate defendants to allow them to structure their primary conduct. It also would allow the forum State to decide claims over which it has little legitimate interest, to the detriment of other States’ interests.”
September 21st, 2020
