Arbitration guru Imre Szalai (Loyola) provides us with his thoughts on the Supreme Court’s recent DirecTV case. Naturally Imre kicked off the listserv thread Jill mentioned yesterday. And here’s a link to Imre’s arbitration blog for further info on the case.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court issued its decision in DirecTV v Imburgia. Three issues struck me after reading the decision: 1) a majority of the Justices re-affirmed (and in my mind, expanded) the broad preemptive powers of the FAA and lost sight of the real meaning of the FAA; 2) the majority federalized contract law by opening the door to review state court interpretations of contract terms; and 3) along the same lines of the Court’s decisions in Concepcion, Rent-A-Center, and American Express, the Court continues to shut the door on challenges to arbitration clauses, and in effect, is moving closer to a model of rubberstamping arbitration agreements.
