Justices Say Transit Details, Not Labels, Determine Arbitration

Constitutional law attorney Christopher Riano wrote a column for Bloomberg Law analyzing the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Flowers Foods Inc. v. Brock, which reaffirmed the Federal Arbitration Act shows the government's preference for enforcing arbitration agreements while clarifying the scope of the law's transportation worker exemption. Mr. Riano explains that rather than relying on labels like "intrastate" or "local," courts must now engage in a functional inquiry into whether a worker is actually part of the broader interstate movement of goods. He notes that for last-mile delivery workers, this means their work may appear local but can still be treated as part of a continuous interstate journey depending on the structure of the supply chain. The article concludes that inventory practices, distribution logistics, warehousing and title to goods will prove decisive in these cases, pointing to the renewed relevance of the exemption for transportation workers in an economy defined by e-commerce and rapid delivery.

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