Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams
United States Supreme Court
532 U.S. 105 (2001)
- Written by Lauren Petersen, JD
Facts
In 1995, Saint Clair Adams (plaintiff) worked as a salesman for Circuit City Stores, Inc. (Circuit City) (defendant) in California. Two years later, Adams sued Circuit City for employment discrimination in California state court. Adams’s employment contract with Circuit City contained an arbitration clause. Circuit City filed suit in district court, seeking to enjoin Adams’s state suit. Additionally, Circuit City sought to compel arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. §§ 1–2. Section 2 of the FAA required the enforcement of arbitration clauses of any contract involving commerce. Section 1 of the FAA exempted the employment contracts of seamen, railroad employees, or other workers engaged in commerce. The district court found that Adams was subject to his contract’s arbitration clause, and so he could not pursue his claims in state court. The court of appeals reversed. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a split among the circuits.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Kennedy, J.)
Dissent (Souter, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 802,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
