AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion

Summary

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Scalia joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito, held that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts California’s Discover Bank rule invalidating certain consumer arbitration agreements that prohibit classwide proceedings. Although the Act preserves generally applicable contract defenses, it does not preserve rules that obstruct enforcement of arbitration agreements according to their terms and interfere with arbitration’s fundamental attributes. The Court reversed the Ninth Circuit and remanded. Justice Thomas concurred separately, without additional joiners, proposing that the statutory saving clause preserves only defenses concerning contract formation while expressly joining the Court’s opinion. Justice Breyer, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan, dissented, arguing that California’s nondiscriminatory unconscionability rule falls within the saving clause and does not frustrate the Act’s objectives.