In an article I wrote for this publication shortly after the November 2016 presidential election, I suggested that predictions of the demise of employment and consumer-related arbitration provisions (including clauses waiving class action arbitration) should be put on hold pending the appointment of the ninth U.S. Supreme Court justice to break the balance of the then-4-4 court deadlock.

That this deadlock related to arbitration matters has indeed been broken was demonstrated most recently in the May 21 SCOTUS decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis. That ruling involved three cases with different facts but similar issues from the Fifth, Seventh and Ninth circuits.