Burnham v. Superior Court of Cal., County of Marin

Justice Brennan,

with whom Justice Marshall, Justice Blackmun, and Justice O’Connor join, concurring in the judgment.

I agree with Justice Scalia that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment generally permits a state *629court to exercise jurisdiction over a defendant if he is served with process while voluntarily present in the forum State.1 I do not perceive the need, however, to decide that a jurisdictional rule that “ ‘has been immemorially the actual law of the land,’” ante, at 619, quoting Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516, 528 (1884), automatically comports with due process…