Joseph McKenna

“ The right and procedure of removal of actions from a state court are to be determined by the Federal law. (2) The legislature or the judiciary of a state can neither defeat the right nor limit its effect. (3) The act of Congress by which the practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding in actions at law in the courts of the United States are required to conform as near as may be to those existing in the state courts applies only to cases of which the court has jurisdiction according to the Constitution and laws of the United States. ”

“ Without it a state could prescribe any process or notice, or a plaintiff, as in the pending case, serve process on a person having no relation with a defendant, and compel him to submit to it and to a jurisdiction not of his residence, or give up his right to take the case to what, in contemplation of law, may be a more impartial tribunal for the determination of the action instituted against him, and which it is the purpose of the removal proceedings to secure to him ”

“ The copy of the record was duly filed in the district court of the United States. The defendant then filed in the latter court a plea to the jurisdiction over the person of defendant, appearing specially for that purpose. The plea alleged that the state court had not acquired jurisdiction of the defendant, because (a) it was a corporation of the state of Tennessee, and that it had never taken out a license to do business in Mississippi, nor, at the time of the service of the summons, did it have an agent, office, or place of business in Hinds county, state of Mississippi ”