• February 23, 2010

Promoting its appellate practice, Twin Cities law firm Faegre & Benson L.L.P. distributes timely notices and synopses of U.S. Supreme Court decisions by email to friends, counsel, and clients.  It also posts them on its website (and I mean “timely” — same day).  Thanks to Faegre (their appellate lawyers, John F. Beukema and Aaron D. Van Oort), Minnesota Litigator can quickly review the Faegre digest and pass on the news:

Justice Breyer, for a unanimous Supreme Court, has adopted the Seventh Circuit “nerve center” test (rejecting the Ninth Circuit’s “center of gravity” test) to determine a corporation’s “principal place of business” for purposes of deciding whether diversity jurisdiction exists for a case brought in federal court with a corporate party.

The ultimate ramifications of the decision (if any) are unclear but the Supreme Court, at least, appears to think this test will be simpler to apply which, if true, will streamline or eliminate some jurisdictional skirmishes at the outset of litigation.

(Gratuitous aside: Corporations have individual rights under the First Amendment now and are analyzed for jurisdictional purposes by the “nerve center” test…What’s next, a ruling that M&A deals can violate organ donor statutes?)

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