Court Opinion

ID: 9487622
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:22:05.923381+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:23.555696
License: Public Domain

WILLIAM A. NORRIS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
In Farrand...., a case decided after the district court order in this case, the Seventh Circuit disposed of an appeal identical to the one before us on the narrow ground that the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) rules do not require the arbitration of employment disputes. I agree with Far-rand, as does the majority. See op. at 1305. I also agree with the Seventh Circuit that the inapplicability of the NASD arbitration rules to employment disputes is dispositive of the question of whether an employee governed by those rules may be required to arbitrate a discrimination claim.
*1306The majority, however, for reasons that escape me, finds it necessary to go on to hold (1) that Congress intended that employees can only knowingly waive their right to adjudicate employment discrimination claims, and (2) that the particular employees in this case did not knowingly waive that right. I express no opinion on either of these issues because I see no need to reach them. I am concerned, however, that the majority engages in appellate fact-finding by holding that these particular employees did not knowingly waive their trial rights, even though the district court never made a finding on the issue. The question of a knowing waiver of rights is so highly fact-sensitive that it should rarely, if ever, be decided in the first instance by an appellate court.
I concur in the judgment for the reasons stated in Farrand.