Resident Fellow Ted Frank

In Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Shutts, the U.S. Supreme Court held that due process prohibits a state from imposing its law extraterritorially upon transactions with no connection to the state.[1] A 2003 decision in Oklahoma, however, does just that, creating fifty state classes under choice-of-law principles, even though the Oklahoma legislature would be forbidden from doing so.[2] A recent unreported Oklahoma case, Grider v. Compaq Computer Corp., applies Texas consumer law on a nationwide basis--even as the Texas Supreme Court has held that such law is inapplicable outside of Texas.[3] Grider's class certification raises troubling questions of due process, the Full Faith and Credit Clause, and public policy. . . .

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Notes

1. 472 U.S. 797 (1985).
2. Ysbrand v. DaimlerChrysler Corp., 81 P.3d 618 (Okla. 2003).
3. Unreported decision from Oklahoma, cert. denied, 128 S.Ct. 378
(2007).