Jaswinder Singh v. Uber Technologies, Inc.

The Federal Arbitration Act exempts the “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” 9 U.S.C. § 1. The Seventh Circuit has held that this exemption applies to any member of a class of workers that is engaged in the transportation of goods or passengers across state lines. The Ninth, First, and Third Circuits have added additional requirements: The class of workers must be primarily engaged in interstate work rather than in intra-state work and the transportation performed must primarily be long-distance rather than short or local. The question presented is: Does the residual clause in Section 1 of the FAA exempt a class of transportation workers that directly transports passengers across state lines, but primarily performs intra-state transportation?