|
Today in History (1862) - The U.S. government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation. On the same day in 1865, the Confederate Congress voted to enlist 300,000 black troops, granting them freedom with the consent of their owners. Lee surrendered a few weeks later. |
I saw a news article about Richard Linklater's former classmates' suing him and Universal Studios for defamation, and all I could think was, "How are these Texas residents claiming New Mexico jurisdiction?"
Oh, Civil Procedure, you have killed my joie de vivre and replaced it with Keeton v. Hustler.
That IS weird. This is a textbook example of forum shopping by the plaintiffs at its worst.
Still, it seems that New Mexico has personal jurisdiction over the plaintiffs because they've voluntarily accepted it. And New Mexico probably has personal jurisdiction over Universal Studios, which presumably does business in the state of New Mexico. So personal jurisdiction may not even be an issue, leaving only subject matter jurisdiction as an issue. And that question depends on New Mexico law, which I'm not familiar with. Generally, though, state courts have much broader subject matter jurisdiction provisions than, say, federal Article III courts.