Justice Brett Kavanaugh issued his first opinion Tuesday, writing for a unanimous court in upholding the power of contract arbitration.
The case involved whether arbitrators are able to decide whether an issue is within their own decision-making jurisdiction.
Justice Kavanaugh wrote that the Federal Arbitration Act and earlier precedents show that if parties agree to turn that power over to an arbitrator, there’s no reason for judges to later question it.
“When the parties’ contract delegates the arbitrability question to an arbitrator, the courts must respect the parties’ decision as embodied in the contract,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote.
The case stemmed from a dispute between two companies who entered into a contract agreeing to have any dispute settled through arbitration unless a party sought injunctive relief.
Once their relationship grew tart, one of the companies took the other to court alleging federal antitrust violations, among other infractions, seeking injunctive relief.
The complaint sparked the question over whether the arbitrator should be the one to decide not only the merits, but also what is subject to arbitration and what is not.
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