Sotomayor, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 17–988
LAMPS PLUS, INC., ET AL., PETITIONERS v. FRANK VARELA
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
[April 24, 2019]
Justice Sotomayor, dissenting.
I join Justice Ginsburg’s dissent in full and Part II. of Justice Kagan’s dissent.[1] This Court went wrong years ago in concluding that a “shift from bilateral arbitration to class-action arbitration” imposes such “fundamental changes,” Stolt-Nielsen S. A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., 559 U. S. 662, 686 (2010), that class-action arbitration “is not arbitration as envisioned by the” Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 563 U. S. 333, 351 (2011). See, e. g., id., at 362–365 (Breyer, J., dissenting). A class action is simply “a procedural device” that allows multiple plaintiffs to aggregate their claims, 1 W. Rubenstein, Newberg on Class Actions §1:1 (5th ed. 2011), “[f]or convenience… and to prevent a failure of justice,” Supreme Tribe of Ben-Hur v. Cauble, 255 U. S. 356, 363 (1921). Where, as here, an employment agreement provides for arbitration as a forum for all disputes relating to a person’s employment and the rules of that forum allow for class actions, an employee who signs an
- ↑ I am not persuaded at this point that the Court of Appeals lacked jurisdiction over this case, and for that reason I do not join Justice Breyer’s dissenting opinion. Nevertheless, I believe that Justice Breyer’s opinion raises weighty issues that are worthy of further consideration if raised in the appropriate circumstances in the lower federal courts.
