Court Opinion

ID: 9427179
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:58.417149+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:05.292261
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Brennan,
with whom Mr. Justice White and Mr. Justice Powell join,
dissenting.
The Court properly treats this case as presenting a single narrow question. That question is whether the California Supreme Court correctly “weighed” “the facts,” ante, at 92, of this particular case in applying the settled “constitutional standard,” ibid., that before state courts may exercise in *102personam jurisdiction over a nonresident, nondomiciliary parent of minor children domiciled in the State, it must appear that the nonresident has “certain minimum contacts [with the forum State] such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend 'traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.5 '' International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U. S. 310, 316 (1945). The Court recognizes that “this determination is one in which few answers will be written 'in black and white/ '' ante, at 92. I cannot say that the Court's determination against state-court in personam jurisdiction is implausible, but, though the issue is close, my independent weighing of the facts leads me to conclude, in agreement with the analysis and determination of the California Supreme Court, that appellant's connection with the State of California was not too attenuated, under the standards of reasonableness and fairness implicit in the Due Process Clause, to require him to conduct his defense in the California courts. I therefore dissent.