Law Commons^™

Police Arbitration, Stephen Rushin

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Before punishing an officer for professional misconduct, police departments often provide the officer with an opportunity to file an appeal. In many police departments, this appeals process culminates in a hearing before an arbitrator. While numerous media reports have suggested that arbitrators regularly overturn or reduce discipline, little legal research has comprehensively examined the outcomes of police disciplinary appeals across the United States.

In order to better understand the use of arbitration in police disciplinary appeals and build on prior research, this Article draws on a dataset of 624 arbitration awards issued between 2006 and 2020 from a diverse range …

Arbitration Of Worker Contracts: New Prime's Proper Statutory Interpretation Of The 1925 Federal Arbitration Act, Margaret L. Moses

Faculty Publications & Other Works

In 1925, the Congress that adopted the Federal Arbitration Act did not intend for it to cover any workers’ contracts. However, this changed dramatically when the Supreme Court determined in Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams (2001) that all workers’ contracts were covered except for transportation workers. Thus, today, thousands of workers are forced into adhesion contracts requiring arbitration. However, the recent unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in New Prime v. Oliveira unequivocally declares that the proper way to interpret the Act is to give it the meaning it had when Congress enacted the statute. This very reasonable conclusion …

How The Supreme Court's Misconstruction Of The Faa Has Affected Consumers, Margaret L. Moses

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Neither the drafters of the Federal Arbitration Act nor the Congress that adopted it intended for it to cover consumers or workers or displace state jurisdiction or state substantive law. The FAA was simply intended to provide a means for resolving disputes among commercial entities that might voluntarily choose to forego their rights to have their disputes settled in court, in favor of what they deemed to be a simpler and more efficient means of dispute resolution. That point, which is entirely beyond dispute, has been lost on the Supreme Court. In a series of cases over the past fifty …