Today in Supreme Court History: December 3

International Shoe v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310 (decided December 3, 1945): this case was (as my law professor put it) the “fountainhead” of personal jurisdiction law, finally ending the “presence in the state” games begun in 1878 by Pennoyer v. Neff (which Civ Pro profs waste a lot of time on): jurisdiction over out-of-state defendant consistent with Due Process if had enough “minimum contacts” in the forum state to “not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice” (at issue was payment of unemployment insurance by out-of-state shoe seller) (Black’s dissent notes nothing in the Constitution that supports this formulation) (but nothing prohibits it either) (limited by Daimler AG v. Bauman, 2014)

Hamilton v. Regents of University of California, 293 U.S. 245 (decided December 3, 1934): state university students with religious objection to war not exempt from required courses in military science; courses did not obligate them to military service (as an anti-war person myself I think we should all learn as much as we can about the “science” of war -- I’ve read Sun Tzu, and not only does he reveal the military mindset, much of what he says applies to other adversarial situations)

Griffin v. United States, 502 U.S. 46 (decided December 3, 1991): guilty verdict as to one objective of conspiracy (impeding IRS investigation into taxes) will stand even if no verdict as to another objective (impeding DEA investigation into forfeitable assets) (petitioner was not charged as to second objective)