Source: http://live.scotusblog.com/Event/Live_blog_of_orders_and_opinions__May_21_2018?Page=1
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 00:11:51+00:00

Document:
This live blog features discussion of four cases granted today for oral argument next term -- Virginia Uranium Inc. v. Warren, Culbertson v. Berryhill, Jam v. International Finance Corp and Royal v. Murphy. This live blog also features discussion of the opinions in two argued cases that were released today -- Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis and Upper Skagit Indian Tribe v. Lundgren.
The Court holds that Congress has instructed in the Federal Arbitration Act that arbitration agreements providing for individualized proceedings must be enforced.
Gorsuch is voting with the conservatives here, as expected. Holds against the interpretation of the Board, and in favor of the employers' position.
Gorsuch writes that the "policy may be debatable but the law is clear: Congress has instructed that arbitration agreements like those before us must be enforced as written. While Congress is of course always free to amend this judgment, we see nothing suggesting it did so in the" National Labor Relations Act, "much less that it manifested a clear intention to displace the Arbitration Act."
This is, as Eric said, a big victory for employers.
Ginsburg dissents, joined by Breyer/Sotomayor/Kagan.
Ginsburg describes majority holding as "egregiously wrong."
Ginsburg concludes that if "these untoward consequences stemmed from legislative choices, I would be obliged to accede to them. But the edict that employees with wag and hours claims may seek relief only one-by-one does not come from Congress."
"It is the result," she says, "of take-it-or-leave-it labor contracts harking back to the type called 'yellow dog,' and of the readiness of this Court to enforce those unbargained-for agreements. The" Federal Arbitration Act "demands no such suppression for the right of workers to take concerted action for their 'mutual aid or protection.'"
Concern of dissent is that individual claims tend to be small, so that it's not necessarily worth the expense to pursue individually, but now they can't pursue together either.
Justice Ginsburg is now reading from her dissenting opinion. This is a relatively rare and significant move.
Those interested in the Court's arbitration (or FAA) jurisprudence will see interesting echoes of the dissent from Italian Colors (per Kagan) in today's dissent from Ginsburg in Epic. Both point out that there is great tension is enforcing an individual arbitration agreement to defeat a claim that Congress created precisely because it was concerned with the unequal bargaining power of certain parties (monopolists, in Italian Colors, and employers, in Epic). An expansive construction of the FAA has nonetheless been a big part of the Court's conservative-leaning jurisprudence for at least the last decade. At this point, Congress itself might need to get involved for this tide to turn back.
Gorsuch devoted an entire section responding to the dissents points (nearly) one-by-one. Is this common? Possible explanation for the delay?
We are expecting at least one more opinion. Under the normal rules for opinion announcements (because the justices normally announce opinions in order of reverse seniority), we could get another one (or more) from Gorsuch or any other justice, because he is the most junior justice.
One interesting point for Court watchers is that this is a really big opinion for junior justice to be assigned. Under normal circumstances, it would basically never happen. But this was an issue that split 4-4 before Justice Gorsuch joined the Court, so he was the deciding vote, and that is probably why the Chief assigned it to him. I believe something similar happened with the copyright case that divided 4-4 before Justice Kagan joined the Court.
Ginsburg indicates that suits like the employees' fall well within the kind of "concerted activities" for "mutual air or protection" protected by the Norris-La Guardia Act and the National Labor Relationss act.
Nothing about this opinion (perhaps other than the author) comes as much of a surprise after the oral argument.
Is RBG wearing a dissent collar?
Ginsburg dissent weighs in at a hefty 30 pages, which is 5 pages longer than the majority decision.
The copyright case meaning Kirtsaeng?
Does this decision give any realistic insights to the union dues case?
We have the second and final decision of the day, which is also from Justice Gorsuch. It is Upper Skagit Indian Tribe v. Lundgren.
The decision of the Washington Supreme Court is vacated and remanded.
It's a short decision that sends the case back to the state court, which had rejected the tribe's claim of sovereign immunity in a property dispute.
Gorsuch decided to lead with the big opinion and follow up with the less intriguing one. SCOTUS needs #pageviews training.
Roberts has a concurring opinion joined by Kennedy, while Thomas dissents, joined by Alito.
Does the fact that Gorsuch wrote this opinion suggest anything about who may be writing any of the other remaining opinions?
Okay, I am going to get to work now that we are done here with opinions. Next Monday is the Memorial Day holiday, so we would expect to be back here on Tuesday morning for orders and (presumably) opinions. Thanks, all!
It seems like Gorsuch announced Epic (No. 16-285) first and Upper Skagit Tribe (No. 17-387) second because of the order of their docket numbers, not their relative importance.
How often does it happen where the most junior justice writes an opinion and the Chief adds a concurrence? Was there some point that Roberts wanted to emphasize that Gorsuch didn't, or what?
There will be a lot to digest from the epic Epic decision (pun hat-tip: 35 different comments) but we'll see you here next week most likely for another set of decisions.
Do we have the opinion PDF in Upper Skagit yet?
Okay, everybody -- thanks so much for joining us this morning. We are going to have Amy today writing about the orders and Epic Systems and Ronald Mann on Upper Skagit. I expect we'll have Mark Walsh provide a "view" from the courtroom. And we'll begin an online symposium on Epic Systems.
We don't know for sure but I expect we'll be back next Tuesday for more orders and opinions. Have a great week and Memorial Day weekend!
Any more questions can be sent through Twitter (@scotusblog) or to email (feedback [at] scotusblog [dot] cpm).

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