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Page Number: 10

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

interlocutory  appeal,  but  not 

that appeal, Congress need not say anything about a stay.
At least absent contrary indications, the background Griggs
principle  already  requires  an  automatic  stay  of  district 
court  proceedings  that  relate  to  any  aspect  of  the  case 
involved in the appeal.  By contrast, when Congress wants 
to 
to  authorize  an 
automatically stay district court proceedings pending that 
appeal, Congress typically says so.  Since the creation of the 
modern  courts  of  appeals  system  in  1891,  Congress  has
enacted multiple statutory “non-stay” provisions.6  Indeed, 
Congress  enacted  a  “non-stay”  provision  the  day  before 
enacting §16(a) in 1988.  See 102 Stat. 4120 (“Neither the 
application for, nor the granting of, an appeal . . . shall stay
proceedings in the Court of Veterans Appeals”).

In  short,  the  Griggs  rule  requires  that  a  district  court
stay its proceedings while the interlocutory appeal on the
question of arbitrability is ongoing. 

III 

To  overcome  the  Griggs  principle,  Bielski  advances  five 

main arguments.  None is persuasive. 

First,  Bielski  contends  that  an  automatic  stay  would 
encourage  frivolous  appeals  that  would  improperly  delay 
district court proceedings.  To begin with, Bielski has not
established  that  frivolous  appeals  frequently  occur  in  the
Circuits  that  have  long  applied  the  Griggs  principle  in 

—————— 

6 Act of Apr. 3, 1926, ch. 102, 44 Stat. 233–234; Act of Feb. 28, 1927, 
ch. 228, id., at 1261; Act of Sept. 2, 1958, Pub. L. 85–919, 72 Stat. 1770;
Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982, §125, 96 Stat. 37, 28 U. S. C.
§1292(d)(3);  Tax  Reform  Act  of  1986,  §1558,  100  Stat.  2757–2758,  26 
U. S. C. §7482(a)(2)(A); Veterans’ Judicial Review Act, 102 Stat. 4120, as 
amended,  38  U. S. C.  §7292(b)(1);  Bankruptcy  Abuse  Prevention  and 
Consumer  Protection  Act  of  2005,  119  Stat.  203,  28  U. S. C. 
§158(d)(2)(D);  Puerto  Rico  Oversight,  Management,  and  Economic 
Stability  Act,  §306,  130  Stat.  582,  48  U. S. C.  §2166(e)(6);  see  also
Judiciary Act of 1891, §7, 26 Stat. 828; Act of June 6, 1900, ch. 803, 31 
Stat. 660–661; Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 23(f ).