Posted on 01/14/2014 1:17:18 PM PST by Lurking Libertarian
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended protection for multinational companies from lawsuits in the United States over conduct that took place in other countries.
The justices threw out a case in California that sought damages from Daimler AG for its alleged complicity in atrocities committed in Argentinas 1976-to-1983 Dirty War. The company manufactures Mercedes-Benz automobiles and has a subsidiary, Mercedes-Benz USA, that does business in California and other states.
But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for a unanimous court, said those connections were too tenuous to mean the company could be sued in U.S. courts.
Ginsburg said that under the arguments of the plaintiffs Argentines who say they or their relatives were harmed in the Dirty War California is a place where Daimler may be sued on any and all claims against it, wherever in the world the claims may arise.
Such a view is so exorbitant that due process is violated, she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I’d like to see the broader ruling, but I’ll be delighted with the narrow ruling. I really don’t trust the SCOTUS as I cannot fathom a Constitutional thread of their decisions, at least not one that is consistent. The only one who seems consistent is Thomas. I wish we had five more like him.
What’s your rulings scorecard? I mean how many times have you called it wrong? I hate to get my hopes up. ;-]
I’d read that, but didn’t put it together. Thanks for clarifying it. I enjoy your posts and feel free to ping me to any good legal discussions. Take care.
SCOTUS has historically held that the Senate and House have the power to establish and enforce the rules of their respective chambers. So if the Senate considered itself “in session,” I suspect the Court will defer to the Senate’s rules and procedures on the question of whether or not the Senate was in recess.
That being said, I predict that the Court will rule narrowly here and find only that the three 2012 NLRB appointments were unconstitutional because Noel Canning’s claim that the NLRB ruling against it is invalid is predicated on the argument that three of the five NLRB members were unconstitutionally appointed. I don’t believe Noel Canning is asking the Court to rule on any other unconstitutional appointments.
Who knows what SCOTUS will actually do. Lately their rulings have made for very strange bedfellows indeed. When Scalia and Thomas are on opposing sides and Sotomayor sides with Scalia, it becomes impossible for a novice like me to venture an educated guess.
That’s exactly what I’m feeling. I cannot get a handle on any discernible judicial philosophy. Scalia is inscrutable so often that I sometimes think he’s ditzy. I don’t read a lot of strict constructionism or originalism in their rulings, other than Thomas who seems pretty consistent. Their long game is either very long or they don’t have a long game and it’s Hail-Mary passes all the way.
‘In the European Union, for example, a corporation may generally be sued in the nation in which it is domiciled, a term defined to refer only to the location of the corporations statutory seat, central administration, or principal place of business.’
LOL!
That’s our Ginsburg... always looking to anything but the Constitution of The United States of America.
Oh well, worked out this time.
The reliance on foreign law actually makes sense here, which is why Scalia, who has condemned reliance on foreign law, joined the opinion (as did all of the court's conservatives).
The actual text of the Constitution doesn't help much here-- it says that a defendant in a lawsuit is entitled to "due process," i.e. to fairness, but doesn't get more specific than that. It is logical to say that it is not "fair" for a foreign corporation to get dragged into U.S. courts on a theory that foreign courts would never apply to U.S. corporations.
In context it was so superfluous and inept it actually did make me laugh. Like it was a rote or formulaic act by her.
BTW it was a relief that she didn’t look to the middle-east for her international example of ‘fairness’! Or China, Nigeria...
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