The justices’ first opinion day of 2019 brought the first opinion from Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for a unanimous court in Henry Schein Inc. v. Archer & White Sales Inc. The case is the most recent in a decade-long string of opinions under the Federal Arbitration Act, in which the Supreme Court consistently has reversed lower-court decisions refusing to enforce arbitration agreements. Many of those cases have been decided by narrow 5-4 majorities, which has raised the possibility that the replacement of Justice Anthony Kennedy by Kavanaugh might lead to some softening of the court’s position in those cases. As it turns out, Henry Schein will shed no light on that broader question, because even the justices more skeptical about arbitration saw no merit in the arguments against arbitration here.
