{"id":1947,"date":"2017-01-26T12:59:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T17:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/employerdefensereport.com\/?p=1947"},"modified":"2026-03-18T14:47:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:47:39","slug":"u-s-supreme-court-to-decide-validity-of-class-action-waivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/employer-defense-report\/u-s-supreme-court-to-decide-validity-of-class-action-waivers\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Validity of Class Action Waivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-142 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/employerdefensereport.connmaciel.stagingarea.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/10\/us-supreme-court-4.jpg\" alt=\"us-supreme-court-4\" width=\"212\" height=\"216\" \/>Circuit Split on Class Action Waivers<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court has \u00a0agreed to review the validity of class action waiver clauses in employment arbitration agreements to resolve a conflict among the federal appellate courts.\u00a0 As our firm has explained in <a href=\"https:\/\/employerdefensereport.com\/2016\/08\/29\/ninth-circuit-rules-that-agreements-precluding-employees-from-bringing-class-action-claims-violate-federal-labor-law\/\">prior blog posts<\/a>, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit \u2013 the federal appellate court for the Western United States \u2013 has concluded in <em>Morris v. Ernst &amp; Young, LLP<\/em> that a company violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by requiring employees to sign agreements precluding them from bringing class actions or other collective actions regarding their wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employment.\u00a0 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in <em>NLRB v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.<\/em> has concluded to the contrary that the NLRA does not invalidate collective action waivers in arbitration agreements, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in <em>Epic Systems Corp v. Lewis<\/em> has agreed with the Ninth Circuit\u2019s position.\u00a0 The Supreme Court has granted review in all three cases and consolidated the appeals because they raise an identical issue.<\/p>\n<p>Given the current eight-member configuration of the Supreme Court, it is uncertain whether the Court\u2019s review<!--more--> will put this matter to rest.\u00a0 In <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/15pdf\/14-462_2co3.pdf\">DIRECTV, Inc. v. Imburgia<\/a><\/em>, the Court held that class action waivers contained in commercial arbitration agreements are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act.\u00a0 The Supreme Court has not waded into the enforceability of employment class action waivers under the NLRA.<\/p>\n<p><em>Will the Decision Hinge on President Trump Filling the Ninth Seat? <\/em><\/p>\n<p>If President Trump can seat another justice to fill Justice Scalia\u2019s vacancy, the Court may very well have the majority votes to enforce \u00a0class action waivers in the employment context. \u00a0This matter is of critical importance to the business community given the prevalence of class action waiver clauses in employment agreements to combat costly, disruptive class action lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump has stated that his Supreme Court nominee will be announced on February 2, and the current frontrunners are reportedly Neil Gorsuch, a judge on the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit; Thomas Hardiman, who serves on the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; and William Pryor, a judge on the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.\u00a0 All three judges are solidly conservative and would be expected to shift the Court to the right.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, a partisan showdown is likely to result given the Senate Republicans\u2019 refusal to hold a vote last year on former President Obama\u2019s nominee to fill Justice Scalia\u2019s seat.\u00a0 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that Democrats will push for a \u201cmainstream\u201d nominee and are prepared to use the filibuster to defeat a conservative nominee, requiring 60 votes to end debate on the nomination.\u00a0 Republicans currently hold 52 seats in the Senate and will rely on moderate Democrats to support the nominee.\u00a0 If the Senate Democrats are a sufficiently united front against a conservative nominee, the Republican majority\u2019s only recourse would be corral its members into changing parliamentary rules to eliminate the use of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, known as the \u201cnuclear option.\u201d\u00a0 We will see how this plays out in what has become an increasingly partisan political environment following President Trump\u2019s arrival to Washington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Circuit Split on Class Action Waivers The U.S. Supreme Court has \u00a0agreed to review the validity of class action waiver clauses in employment arbitration agreements to resolve a conflict among the federal appellate courts.\u00a0 As our firm&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[815],"tags":[851,910],"class_list":["post-1947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discrimination-harassment-retaliation","tag-class-action-defense","tag-labor-union-activity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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