Arbitration & the Art of Truck Driving

Garcia v. Superior Court, No. B257054 (D2d1 as modified June 2, 2015)

Section 1 of the FAA carves out “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce” from FAA § 2’s mandate that contracts in commerce are generally arbitrable. Given the longstanding understanding of “foreign or instate commerce” as “any commerce,” see Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), it might seem natural to read the provision as saying that the FAA doesn’t apply to employment contracts. But—notwithstanding the fact that five years earlier it had broadly interpreted a reference to interstate commerce in FAA § 2 to mean the full extent of commerce and understood under the U.S. Constitution—in 2000, the Supreme Court read § 1 as limited to the employment contracts of workers who actually work in the instrumentalities of commerce like ship captains and railroad engineers. See Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S. 105 (2001).  This case addresses whether § 1 applies to truck drivers who are defined under their contracts as independent contractors, as opposed to employees.