Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/10pdf/09-893.pdf
Page Number: 30

Cite as:  563 U. S. ____ (2011) 

3 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

cial Servs., Inc., No. 09cv1076, 2009 WL 4895280 (SD Cal.,
Dec. 11, 2009); cf. Provencher, supra, at 1201 (considering 
Discover  Bank  in  choice-of-law  inquiry).  And  even  when 
they  fail,  the  parties  remain  free  to  devise  other  dispute 
mechanisms, including informal mechanisms, that, in con­
text,  will  not  prove  unconscionable.  See  Volt  Informa-
tion Sciences, Inc. v. Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford 
Junior Univ., 489 U. S. 468, 479 (1989). 

II 

A 

The  Discover  Bank  rule  is  consistent  with  the  federal 

Act’s  language.  It  “applies  equally  to  class  action  litiga­
tion  waivers  in  contracts  without  arbitration  agreements 
as  it  does  to  class  arbitration  waivers  in  contracts  with 
such  agreements.”  36  Cal.  4th,  at  165–166,  113  P. 3d,  at 
1112.  Linguistically  speaking,  it  falls  directly  within  the 
scope of the Act’s exception permitting courts  to refuse to 
enforce  arbitration  agreements  on  grounds  that  exist  “for
the  revocation  of  any  contract.”  9  U. S. C.  §2  (emphasis 
added).  The majority agrees.  Ante, at 9. 

B 
The Discover Bank rule is also consistent with the basic 
“purpose  behind”  the  Act.  Dean  Witter  Reynolds  Inc.  v. 
Byrd,  470  U. S.  213,  219  (1985).    We  have  described  that 
purpose  as  one  of  “ensur[ing]  judicial  enforcement”  of 
arbitration  agreements. 
Ibid.;  see  also  Marine  Transit 
Corp.  v.  Dreyfus,  284  U. S.  263,  274,  n. 2  (1932)  (“ ‘The 
purpose of this bill is to make valid and enforcible agree­
ments  for  arbitration’ ”  (quoting  H. R.  Rep.  No.  96,  68th 
Cong., 1st Sess., 1 (1924); emphasis added)); 65 Cong. Rec. 
1931 (1924) (“It creates no new legislation, grants no new
rights,  except  a  remedy  to  enforce  an  agreement  in  com­
mercial contracts and in admiralty contracts”).  As is well 
known,  prior  to  the  federal  Act,  many  courts  expressed