By Maclain Conlin — The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment grants corporations a substantive right to be free from civil claims in state court unless it is either incorporated in that state or the conduct at issue in the case occurred there. However, in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway,[1] the Supreme Court held in a 5-4 decision last year that states can actually avoid this protection using a clever legal structure. In Mallory, Pennsylvania informed corporations which registered in its jurisdiction that, by receiving this registration, they were consenting to be sued in that state’s courts and forfeited their Fourteenth Amendment rights.[2] The Court found that because corporations consented to this requirement by maintaining their registration, they could not challenge the law, because it didn’t force them to give up their rights. It simply offered a benefit, and allowed them to waive their due process rights in order to receive it.