In a unanimous decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the U.S. Supreme Court held on May 28, 2026, that a worker who transports goods on an intrastate leg of an interstate journey can be exempt from arbitration under Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) without crossing state lines or interacting with vehicles that do.
Background
The case, Flowers Foods, Inc. et al. v. Brock, is the latest in a line of cases addressing the scope of Section 1 of the FAA, which exempts from arbitration disputes involving "contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce." 9 U.S.C. § 1.
In New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, 586 U.S. 105 (2019), the Supreme Court held that "contracts of employment" includes independent contractor agreements. In Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon, 596 U.S. 450 (2022), the Court held that an airline worker who loaded and unloaded cargo fell within Section 1's exemption even though she did
