The expansion of personal jurisdiction in the 20th century

Traditionally, in civil proceedings in the United States, the defendant or land in dispute was required to be physically served with process in the state where the court sits. The most famous statement of this principle arose in the Supreme Court's 1877 constitutional ruling in Pennoyer v. Neff. Over the years, the reach of personal jurisdiction has been expanded by judicial interpretations and legislative enactments. In the landmark 1945 case International Shoe Co. v. Washington, the United States Supreme Court greatly expanded the constitutional boundaries of personal jurisdiction, well beyond its traditional physical presence basis. Following International Shoe, states in the United States enacted so-called long-arm statutes, by which courts in a state can exercise jurisdiction over a party located outside the state, if the party has sufficient contacts within the state.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_jurisdiction_%28United_States%29