On August 23, 2016, I blogged that the issue in Morris v. Ernst & Young was clearly framed by the majority and minority opinions, and almost certainly headed for Supreme Court Review. In that Ninth Circuit case, the majority held that an employer violates sections 7 and 8 of the National Labor Relations Act by requiring employees to sign an agreement precluding them from bringing, in any forum, a concerted legal claim regarding wages, hours, and terms of conditions of employment.
On October 10, 2016, Kate Howard reports for SCOTUSBlog that a petition for a writ of certiorari was in fact filed on September 8, 2016, and states the issue as follows: “Whether the collective-bargaining provisions of the National Labor Relations Act prohibit the enforcement under the Federal Arbitration Act of an agreement requiring an employee to arbitrate claims against an employer on an individual, rather than collective basis.”
Currently, the most important number relating to SCOTUS is eight. With the high court split 4-4 into liberal and conservative wings, arbitration issues, which also tend to break along political lines, could be affected by the appointment of a ninth justice to fill the empty chair.
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