In Ryan v. Thomas, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a state court had jurisdiction over a case involving two citizens of different states. The plaintiff, an Illinois resident, sued the defendant in Wisconsin for breach of contract and sought damages from him. The defendant argued that since he was not a citizen of Wisconsin but rather resided in Ohio at the time of suit initiation, the Wisconsin court lacked jurisdiction to hear his case as it did not involve any parties residing within its borders. The Supreme Court disagreed with this argument and held that under Article III Section 2 Clause 1 (the Diversity Clause) of the United States Constitution, federal courts have original jurisdiction over civil cases between citizens from different states regardless if they are brought into state or federal court. Therefore, because both parties were residents from separate states when suit was initiated against them by another party also residing outside their respective home-states’ boundaries; then according to this ruling by SCOTUS -the Wisconsin State Court had proper authority to adjudicate on such matters even though neither party lived there at time lawsuit commenced

In Ryan v. Thomas, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a state court had jurisdiction over a case involving citizens of different states. The majority opinion held that it did not have such jurisdiction and dismissed the appeal. Justice Field dissented from this decision, arguing that under Article III of the Constitution, Congress has given state courts concurrent jurisdiction with federal courts in cases between citizens of different states. He argued further that if Congress had intended to limit or deny such power to state courts they would have done so explicitly in their legislation rather than leaving it open for interpretation by the Court. Furthermore, he noted that there is no precedent for denying such authority and thus doing so now could lead to confusion among litigants who may be unaware of any distinction between federal and state court powers when filing suit against someone from another state.