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ARTICLE · 12 JULY 2022

Arbitration's Year At The Supreme Court

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With four Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) cases on the Supreme Court's 2021-2022 docket — each involving a different, frequently litigated issue — expectations were high for significant...

United StatesLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration

With four Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) cases on the Supreme Court's 2021-2022 docket — each involving a different, frequently litigated issue — expectations were high for significant new guidance regarding the FAA's protection of arbitration agreements. Those seeking a limit to the FAA's reach were hoping for an end to what they saw as a string of pro-arbitration rulings. Others anticipated expansion of prior FAA holdings enforcing arbitration agreements.

The Court did neither. It instead issued unanimous, or virtually unanimous, decisions that ruled narrowly — reaffirming prior principles and expanding them marginally but declining to address broader questions teed up by the parties and amici. These consensus holdings, avoiding the polarized 5-4 divide in a number of prior FAA cases, demonstrate broad acceptance of the Court's FAA precedents and no interest in substantial modifications of current law.

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