Rick Bales (Northern Kentucky) wrote a very thoughtful blog post on the American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant over at the Workplace Prof Blog. I agree with much of what he said, including the observation that it is unfortunate that the Court will be making new arbitration law that likely will have a huge impact on consumer arbitration based on a case not involving consumers (here, merchants who permitted customers to pay their bills with an Amex card).
My initial post on the grant of cert last Friday was merely a quick report – I also hope to add some thoughts on the case in the coming weeks and months.
It seems to me that the Supreme Court continues to expand the scope of the FAA by relying almost exclusively on their own precedent, instead of the actual language or legislative history of the FAA.
I am astounded by the court’s willingness to eradicate statutory and common law rights in favor of their policy favoring arbitration.