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17 ConLawNOW 1 (2025)

handle is hein.journals/akjopal17 and id is 1 raw text is: PERSONAL JURISDICTION AND THE FIFTH AMENDMENT Scott Dodson* The Supreme Court has avoided clarifying the relationship between federal-court personal jurisdiction, congressional statutes, and the Fifth Amendment. Until now, that is. In June 2025, the Court decided two important cases involving constraints on afederal court's exercise ofpersonal jurisdiction outside of Rule 4(k)(1)(A), which typically ties federal-court personal jurisdiction to state-court personal jurisdiction. This brief essay explains and analyzes those cases, situating them in the Court's larger agenda for personal jurisdiction. It also discusses some open questions raised by the decisions and the role thatpersonal jurisdiction in the United States may now play on the global stage. INTRODUCTION Personal jurisdiction is the power of a court to bind a party to a judgment. Since Pennoyer v. Neff,1 the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause has constrained the exercise of personal jurisdiction by state courts. 2 The Fourteenth Amendment permits state courts to exercise personal jurisdiction in four circumstances: (1) consent,3 (2) in-state service on an individual, 4 (3) residency or citizenship in the state,5 and (4) *Horace O. Coil Chair in Litigation, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, and Director of the Center for Litigation and Courts, University of California Law, San Francisco. 1. 95 U.S. 714 (1878). 2. U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 1 (No state shall ... deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law .... ). 3. See Mallory v. Norfolk S. Ry. Co., 600 U.S. 122, 126 (2023). For a discussion, see Scott Dodson, The Complexities of Consent to Personal Jurisdiction, 113 CALIF. L. REV. 333 (2025). 4. See Burnham v. Superior Court of California, 495 U.S. 604, 617-18 (1990). 5. See Milliken v. Meyer, 311 U.S. 457, 463 (1940).