Today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case concerning the exemption from the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) for “transportation workers.” The issue in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries Park St. (Docket No. 23-51) is whether, to be exempt from the FAA, a class of workers that is actively engaged in interstate transportation must also be employed by a company in the transportation industry.

Four key components of the oral argument:

1. The delivery drivers at issue transported packaged goods manufactured by Flowers Foods, which owns the “Wonder Bread” brand. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of Flowers Foods and one of its distributors, LePage Bakeries, reasoning that the FAA exemption does not apply because the drivers work for employers not in the transportation industry. The Court’s ruling could have an impact on private motor carriers whose principal business is something other than transportation (i.e., retailers).
2. Another issue with respect to the FAA exemption, the issue is whether last-leg or final-mile drivers are engaged in interstate commerce. During the argument, counsel for the drivers made it clear that, while that would be an issue in the case on remand, determining what it means to be engaged in interstate commerce is not presently before the Court.
3. During the oral argument, there was a lot of discussion of what it meant to be railroad employees or seamen in 1925, during the enactment of the FAA, because those groups are specifically listed in the FAA and serve as the reference from which a class of “transportation workers” is to be identified.
4. There was a fair amount of discussion of the purpose of the exemption and how that purpose should influence its interpretation today. Counsel for the drivers emphasized that the exemption text refers to the transportation worker, not the employer. Flower Foods’ counsel argued that, at the time of the FAA’s enactment, railroad employees and seamen shared the common trait of being employed by employers in the transportation industry.

Scopelitis is closely watching the Bissonnette case and other important arbitration-related cases, including one pending at the Seventh Circuit concerning the “mass arbitration” strategy being deployed by plaintiffs’ firms to get around class waivers in arbitration agreements. Look for additional updates as decisions are reached in these cases, likely in the summer months.