Page:Mallory v. Norfolk Southern.pdf/30

Rh that “foreign corporations are given reasonable notice” of the jurisdictional implications of registration).

Nor was Norfolk Southern compelled to register and submit itself to the general jurisdiction of Pennsylvania courts simply because its trains passed through the Commonwealth. See, e.g., 15 Pa. Cons. Stat. §403(a)(11) (2014); 1972 Pa. Laws pp. 1154–1155. Registration is required when corporations seek to conduct local business in a “regular, systematic, or extensive” way. 266 A. 3d, at 562–563 (internal quotation marks omitted). Norfolk Southern apparently deemed registration worthwhile and opted in.

Under Insurance Corp. of Ireland, the due process question that this case presents is easily answered. Having made the choice to register and do business in Pennsylvania despite the jurisdictional consequences (and having thereby voluntarily relinquished the due process rights our general-jurisdiction precedents afford), Norfolk Southern cannot be heard to complain that its due process rights are violated by having to defend itself in Pennsylvania’s courts. Whether Pennsylvania could have asserted general jurisdiction over Norfolk Southern absent any waiver, see (, dissenting), is beside the point.

In other areas of the law, we permit States to ask defendants to waive individual rights and safeguards. See, e.g., Brady v. United States, 397 U. S. 742, 748 (1970) (allowing plea bargains to waive a defendant’s trial rights and the right against self-incrimination); Barker v. Wingo, 407 U. S. 514, 529, 536 (1972) (waiver of speedy trial rights). Moreover, when defendants do so, we respect that waiver decision and hold them to that choice, even though the government could not have otherwise bypassed the rules and procedures those rights protect. Insisting that our general-jurisdiction precedents preclude Pennsylvania from subjecting corporations to suit within its borders—despite their waiver of the protections those precedents entail—puts the personal-jurisdiction requirement on a pedestal. But there is nothing