Opinion of the Court
that appeal, Congress need not say anything about a stay. At least absent contrary indications, the background Griggs principle already requires an automatic stay of district court proceedings that relate to any aspect of the case involved in the appeal. By contrast, when Congress wants to authorize an interlocutory appeal, but not to automatically stay district court proceedings pending that appeal, Congress typically says so. Since the creation of the modern courts of appeals system in 1891, Congress has enacted multiple statutory “non-stay” provisions.[1] Indeed, Congress enacted a “non-stay” provision the day before enacting §16(a) in 1988. See 102 Stat. 4120 (“Neither the application for, nor the granting of, an appeal … shall stay proceedings in the Court of Veterans Appeals”).
In short, the Griggs rule requires that a district court stay its proceedings while the interlocutory appeal on the question of arbitrability is ongoing.
III
To overcome the Griggs principle, Bielski advances five main arguments. None is persuasive.
First, Bielski contends that an automatic stay would encourage frivolous appeals that would improperly delay district court proceedings. To begin with, Bielski has not established that frivolous appeals frequently occur in the Circuits that have long applied the Griggs principle in
- ↑ Act of Apr. 3, 1926, ch. 102, 44 Stat. 233–234; Act of Feb. 28, 1927, ch. 228, id., at 1261; Act of Sept. 2, 1958, Pub. L. 85–919, 72 Stat. 1770; Federal Courts Improvement Act of 1982, §125, 96 Stat. 37, 28 U. S. C. §1292(d)(3); Tax Reform Act of 1986, §1558, 100 Stat. 2757–2758, 26 U. S. C. §7482(a)(2)(A); Veterans’ Judicial Review Act, 102 Stat. 4120, as amended, 38 U. S. C. §7292(b)(1); Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, 119 Stat. 203, 28 U. S. C. §158(d)(2)(D); Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, §306, 130 Stat. 582, 48 U. S. C. §2166(e)(6); see also Judiciary Act of 1891, §7, 26 Stat. 828; Act of June 6, 1900, ch. 803, 31 Stat. 660–661; Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 23(f).
