In Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon, 596 U.S. ___ (No. 21-309) (June 6, 2022) (Southwest), a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court declared that airline cargo handlers are workers in interstate commerce, and thus exempt from the enforceability of arbitration agreements, per an exception set forth in the Federal Arbitration Act. See 9 U.S.C. §1. In this, the second installment of our two-part article, we shall exposit the wisdom of that brand new landmark, and later explore its ramifications, if any, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s decision in Bissonnette (see The FAA Keeps On Trucking: The Second Circuit and ‘Bissonnette,’ New York Law Journal (July 13, 2022)) as well as future controversies.

Southwest opens with a masterful understatement; the airline “moves a lot of cargo” in interstate and foreign commerce, over 250 million pounds of it, according to government statistics. As a “ramp supervisor,” the respondent personally loaded and unloaded some of that air freight.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]