On 25 January 1981, Iowa native Ronald Calder struck a Puerto Rican couple, Antonio de Jesus and his wife Amy Villalba de Jesus, with his car in a grocery store parking lot near Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, following what was reportedly a dispute over scraped fenders.

[3][4] Calder was arrested and charged with first-degree homicide by Puerto Rican authorities and was released after paying $5,000 bail.

However, Calder did not appear at two preliminary hearings that were scheduled in the Puerto Rico District Courts, and he was then declared a fugitive of justice.

The conception of the relation between the States and the Federal Government there announced is fundamentally incompatible with more than a century of constitutional development.

Justice O'Connor noted that fact in her concurrence and did not join the opinion of the Court regarding Puerto Rico's status.

[7] Justice Scalia also did not join that section of the opinion and noted that "no party before us has asserted the lack of power of Congress to require extradition from a State to a Territory.

"[8] The decision effectively overruled Kentucky v. Dennison and reversed the judgments of the Eighth Circuit and the Southern District of Iowa.