1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i An Avalanche of Arbitration: Three Federal Arbitration Act Cases at the Supreme Court Updated January 15, 2019 UPDATE: On January 15, 2019, the Supreme Court issued its decision in New Prime v. Oliveira.
2、In an opinion authored by Justice Gorsuch, the Court unanimously ruled in favor of respondent Oliveira on both of the questions discussed below. First, the Court held that courtsnot arbitratorshad to determine whether or not an arbitration agreement falls within the ambit of Sections 1 and 2 of the
3、Federal Arbitration Act, even if the parties sought to delegate that question to arbitration. Second, the Court held that an independent contracting agreement was a “contract of employment” such that it was subject to the Federal Arbitration Acts exemption for such contracts involving interstate tra
4、nsportation workers like Mr. Oliveira. Justice Ginsburg concurred, writing a short separate opinion to observe that, while ordinarily it is appropriate to look at the ordinary meaning of the words in a statute at the time the statute was enacted (as the Court did in New Prime with the language “cont
