Court Opinion

ID: 6959708
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-24 01:43:25.900552+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:08:23.609908
License: Public Domain

KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
While I join Judge Fernandez’s opinion, I find the question presented closer than most. The Supreme Court cases on which the opinion relies are helpful, maj. op. at 888-889, but they don’t get us all the way there. As Judge Mayer points out, they say that parties may set the time, place and manner of arbitration; none says that private parties may tell the federal courts how to conduct their business. In general, I do not believe parties may impose on the federal courts burdens and functions that Congress has withheld. A partial answer is that any case properly in district court under the Federal Arbitration Act must have an independent jurisdictional basis. See Garrett v. Merritt Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc., 7 F.3d 882, 883 (9th Cir.1993). Thus, enforcing the arbitration agreement-even with enhanced judicial review-will consume far fewer judicial resources than if the case were given plenary adjudication. The rub is that the work the district court must perform under this arbitration clause is not a subset of what it would be doing if the case were brought directly under diversity or federal question jurisdiction. It’s not just less work, it is different work. Nowhere has Congress authorized courts to review arbitral awards under the standard the parties here adopted.
Nevertheless, I conclude that we must enforce the arbitration agreement according to its terms. The review to which the parties have agreed is no different from that performed by the district courts in appeals from administrative agencies and bankruptcy courts, or on habeas corpus. I would call the case differently if the agreement provided that the district judge would review the award by flipping a coin or studying the entrails of a dead fowl. Given the strong policy of party empowerment embodied in the Arbitration Act, I see no reason why Congress would object to enforcement of this agreement. This is not quite an express congressional authorization but, given the Arbitration Act’s policy, it’s probably enough.