DirectTV v. Imburgia – FAA Preemption Über Alles

On December 14, the United States Supreme Court decided DirecTV v. Imburgia, the latest chapter in an expansion of the Federal Arbitration Act to pre-empt state law well beyond anything Congress in the 1920s could plausibly have imagined. Full disclosure: I’m not a fan of the Court’s FAA jurisprudence.

The Court once again purports to place arbitration agreements “on equal footing with all other contracts,” while at the same time giving arbitration clauses a force that even a Sith would have to admire.  Don’t underestimate the power of arbitration clauses over all other terms in a contract.  Professor Imre Stephen Szalai (Loyola – New Orleans) may have said it best in an e-mail that made the rounds on ADR, CivPro, and Contracts Prof listervs and that is especially appropriate for this blog:

“Nothing can stand in the way of FAA preemption, not even the parties’ contract.”

Many commentators will write many words about many aspects of the DirecTV case in the upcoming days and weeks, such as the eloquent dissent by Justice Ginsburg addressing economic imbalances of power in consumer contracts. I want to take a moment here, however, to praise the short and lonely dissent by Justice Thomas, espousing a view on which he has been unwaivering for more than two decades: “I remain of the view that the Federal Arbitration Act does not apply to proceedings in state courts.”

While that solo dissent–and five dollars–will get you a café mocha at Starbucks, he has Congressional intent right.  A pre-Erie statute intended to overcome federal courts’ traditional hostility to arbitration was never intended to become a federal preemption juggernaut capable of divesting states of huge swaths of jurisdiction over state contract law.

Federal Arbitration Act rant now complete. Thank you for listening.