Skip to content
National Association of Attorneys General
  • Issues
    • Issues
      • Anticorruption
      • Antitrust
      • Bankruptcy
      • Charities
      • Civil Law
    • Issues
      • Consumer Protection
      • Criminal Law
      • Cyber and Technology
      • Disaster Preparedness & Response
      • Elder Justice
    • Issues
      • Ethics
      • Human Trafficking
      • Medicaid Fraud
      • Opioids
      • Powers & Duties
    • Issues
      • Public Health
      • The U.S. Supreme Court
      • Tobacco
      • Veterans & Military
  • Our Work
    • Training & Research
    • Centers
      • NAAG Center on Cyber and Technology
      • NAAG Center for Excellence in Governance
      • NAAG Center for Supreme Court Advocacy
      • NAAG Center for Tobacco & Public Health
      • NAGTRI Center for Consumer Protection
      • NAGTRI Center for Ethics & Public Integrity
      • NAGTRI Center for International Partnerships & Strategic Collaboration
      • NAGTRI Center for Leadership Development
      • NAGTRI Center for Legal Advocacy & Faculty Development
    • Committees
    • Initiatives
      • Presidential Initiative
      • Strategic Partnerships
      • ConsumerResources.org
      • International Fellows
      • COVID-19
    • Bankruptcy
    • Policy & Advocacy
  • Events & Training
    • Event Calendar
    • Attorney General Symposium
    • Presidential Summit
    • Capital Forum
    • Region Meetings
    • CLE Credit
    • NAGTRI Trainings
    • Online Learning
    • NAMFCU Trainings
    • NAGTRI Faculty
    • Video Library
  • News & Resources
    • Attorney General Journal
    • Reports & Publications
    • Newsroom
    • NAAG Policy Letters
    • Podcasts
    • Online Learning
    • Research & Data
    • Member Directory
  • Attorneys General
    • What Attorneys General Do
    • Who is my Attorney General?
    • Research & Data
    • Awards & Recognition
    • Careers in Attorney General Offices
    • Careers in Medicaid Fraud Control Units
  • About NAAG
    • NAAG Staff
    • NAGTRI
    • NAAG Leadership
    • NAAG Member Services
    • NAAG Regions
    • NAAG FAQs
    • SAGE
    • NAMFCU
    • Newsroom
    • Careers at NAAG
  • Find my AG
  • NAGTRI
  • About NAMFCU
    • History of NAMFCU
    • Medicaid Fraud
    • NAMFCU Trainings
    • NAMFCU Publications
    • Medicaid Fraud Schemes
    • State Medicaid Fraud Control Units
    • Global Case Press Releases
    • Long-Term Care Facilities
    • Careers in Medicaid Fraud Control Units
  • Contact Us
National Association of Attorneys General
  • Find My AG
  • NAGTRI
  • Consumer Complaints
  • Member Benefits
  • Contact Us
Log In
  • Issues
    • Issues
      • Anticorruption
      • Antitrust
      • Bankruptcy
      • Charities
      • Civil Law
    • Issues
      • Consumer Protection
      • Criminal Law
      • Cyber and Technology
      • Disaster Preparedness & Response
      • Elder Justice
    • Issues
      • Ethics
      • Human Trafficking
      • Medicaid Fraud
      • Opioids
      • Powers & Duties
    • Issues
      • Public Health
      • The U.S. Supreme Court
      • Tobacco
      • Veterans & Military
  • Our Work
    • Training & Research
    • Centers
      • NAAG Center on Cyber and Technology
      • NAAG Center for Excellence in Governance
      • NAAG Center for Supreme Court Advocacy
      • NAAG Center for Tobacco & Public Health
      • NAGTRI Center for Consumer Protection
      • NAGTRI Center for Ethics & Public Integrity
      • NAGTRI Center for International Partnerships & Strategic Collaboration
      • NAGTRI Center for Leadership Development
      • NAGTRI Center for Legal Advocacy & Faculty Development
    • Committees
    • Initiatives
      • Presidential Initiative
      • Strategic Partnerships
      • ConsumerResources.org
      • International Fellows
      • COVID-19
    • Bankruptcy
    • Policy & Advocacy
  • Events & Training
    • Event Calendar
    • Attorney General Symposium
    • Presidential Summit
    • Capital Forum
    • Region Meetings
    • CLE Credit
    • NAGTRI Trainings
    • Online Learning
    • NAMFCU Trainings
    • NAGTRI Faculty
    • Video Library
  • News & Resources
    • Attorney General Journal
    • Reports & Publications
    • Newsroom
    • NAAG Policy Letters
    • Podcasts
    • Online Learning
    • Research & Data
    • Member Directory
  • Attorneys General
    • What Attorneys General Do
    • Who is my Attorney General?
    • Research & Data
    • Awards & Recognition
    • Careers in Attorney General Offices
    • Careers in Medicaid Fraud Control Units
  • About NAAG
    • NAAG Staff
    • NAGTRI
    • NAAG Leadership
    • NAAG Member Services
    • NAAG Regions
    • NAAG FAQs
    • SAGE
    • NAMFCU
    • Newsroom
    • Careers at NAAG
  • Find my AG
  • NAGTRI
  • About NAMFCU
    • History of NAMFCU
    • Medicaid Fraud
    • NAMFCU Trainings
    • NAMFCU Publications
    • Medicaid Fraud Schemes
    • State Medicaid Fraud Control Units
    • Global Case Press Releases
    • Long-Term Care Facilities
    • Careers in Medicaid Fraud Control Units
  • Contact Us

Supreme Court Report: Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon, 21-309

Home / Supreme Court / Supreme Court Report: Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon, 21-309

  • Dan Schweitzer
    Director, Center for Supreme Court Advocacy
    National Association of Attorneys General

Volume 29, Issue 15

This Report summarizes opinions issued on June 6 and 8, 2022 (Part I); and cases granted review on June 6, 2022 (Part II).

Opinion: Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon, 21-309

Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon, 21-309. In an 8-0 opinion, the Court held that an employee who frequently loads and unloads airplane cargo is exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act because she is part of a “class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” Southwest Airlines employs ramp agents who physically load and unload cargo. Ramp agents are trained and supervised by ramp supervisors who frequently load and unload cargo alongside the agents. In her employment contract as a ramp supervisor, respondent Latrice Saxon agreed to arbitrate wage disputes individually, but she nevertheless brought a putative class action against Southwest, alleging that the airline failed to pay proper overtime wages to ramp supervisors. Southwest sought to enforce the arbitration agreement under the FAA and dismiss the lawsuit. Saxon countered that the FAA does not apply to her because Section 1 exempts “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” The district court held that the exemption applied only to those involved in “actual transportation,” not the mere handling of goods. The Seventh Circuit reversed, holding that commerce includes loading cargo onto a vehicle to be transported. The Court affirmed the Seventh Circuit in an opinion by Justice Thomas. (Justice Barrett took no part in the consideration of the case.)

The Court first considered the relevant “class of workers” under the FAA. Noting that the term “seamen” does not include all workers in an industry, the Court rejected Saxon’s argument that virtually all airline employees are exempt from the Act’s coverage because the air transportation industry as a whole is engaged in interstate commerce. But the Court also rejected Southwest’s argument that only workers who physically cross borders are engaged in foreign or interstate commerce. The Court reasoned that the ambiguous term “railroad employees” shows that the exemption is not limited to workers who travel. Instead of adopting either party’s broadest view, the Court noted that the FAA uses the term “workers” (rather than “employees” or “servants”), which directs the reader’s attention to “the performance of work.” The Act also uses the word “engaged,” which emphasizes the actual work carried out by the class. Therefore, found the Court, Saxon is a member of a class of workers “based on what she does at Southwest, not what Southwest does generally.” Since Southwest did not meaningfully contest the type of work done by ramp supervisors, the Court accepted that Saxon belongs to a class of workers that frequently loads and unloads cargo. The Court noted that it did not consider whether supervision of cargo loading alone would suffice to exempt a class of workers from the FAA.

Next, the Court considered whether cargo loaders are “engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” Looking to the dictionary, the Court noted that to be “engaged” means to be “occupied,” “employed,” or “involved” in something, and “commerce” includes “the transportation of . . . goods, both by land and by sea,” or the “exchange of merchandise on a large scale between different places or communities.” Accordingly, the statutory exemption applies to any class of workers “directly involved in transporting goods across state or international borders.” The Court found that airplane cargo loaders fit this description because they are “intimately involved with the commerce (e.g., transportation) of that cargo.” The Court cautioned that, depending on how far removed from interstate or international commerce a class of workers is, the answer will not always be so plain.

Related Posts

Related Posts

Supreme Court Report: Volume 30, Issue 8

Supreme Court Report: Volume 30, Issue 10

Opinion: Biden v. Texas, 21-954

Connect with NAAG and the Attorney General Community

Create a NAAG account to subscribe to our newsletters or mailing lists.

Create Account
Subscribe
Marble columns and the top of a federal building

scroll to filters

White Logo for the National Association of Attorneys General

1850 M Street NW
12th floor
Washington, DC 20036

TEL 202-326-6000
EMAIL 

Youtube
  • Issues
    • Issues
      • Anticorruption
      • Antitrust
      • Bankruptcy
      • Charities
      • Civil Law
    • Issues
      • Consumer Protection
      • Criminal Law
      • Cyber and Technology
      • Disaster Preparedness & Response
      • Elder Justice
    • Issues
      • Ethics
      • Human Trafficking
      • Medicaid Fraud
      • Opioids
      • Powers & Duties
    • Issues
      • Public Health
      • The U.S. Supreme Court
      • Tobacco
      • Veterans & Military
  • Our Work
    • Training & Research
    • Centers
      • NAAG Center on Cyber and Technology
      • NAAG Center for Excellence in Governance
      • NAAG Center for Supreme Court Advocacy
      • NAAG Center for Tobacco & Public Health
      • NAGTRI Center for Consumer Protection
      • NAGTRI Center for Ethics & Public Integrity
      • NAGTRI Center for International Partnerships & Strategic Collaboration
      • NAGTRI Center for Leadership Development
      • NAGTRI Center for Legal Advocacy & Faculty Development
    • Committees
    • Initiatives
      • Presidential Initiative
      • Strategic Partnerships
      • ConsumerResources.org
      • International Fellows
      • COVID-19
    • Bankruptcy
    • Policy & Advocacy
  • Events & Training
    • Event Calendar
    • Attorney General Symposium
    • Presidential Summit
    • Capital Forum
    • Region Meetings
    • CLE Credit
    • NAGTRI Trainings
    • Online Learning
    • NAMFCU Trainings
    • NAGTRI Faculty
    • Video Library
  • News & Resources
    • Attorney General Journal
    • Reports & Publications
    • Newsroom
    • NAAG Policy Letters
    • Podcasts
    • Online Learning
    • Research & Data
    • Member Directory
  • Attorneys General
    • What Attorneys General Do
    • Who is my Attorney General?
    • Research & Data
    • Awards & Recognition
    • Careers in Attorney General Offices
    • Careers in Medicaid Fraud Control Units
  • About NAAG
    • NAAG Staff
    • NAGTRI
    • NAAG Leadership
    • NAAG Member Services
    • NAAG Regions
    • NAAG FAQs
    • SAGE
    • NAMFCU
    • Newsroom
    • Careers at NAAG
  • Find my AG
  • NAGTRI
  • About NAMFCU
    • History of NAMFCU
    • Medicaid Fraud
    • NAMFCU Trainings
    • NAMFCU Publications
    • Medicaid Fraud Schemes
    • State Medicaid Fraud Control Units
    • Global Case Press Releases
    • Long-Term Care Facilities
    • Careers in Medicaid Fraud Control Units
  • Contact Us
  • Find My AG
  • NAGTRI
  • Consumer Complaints
  • Member Benefits
  • Contact Us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy & Cookies Notice
  • Sitemap
  • Member Login

About the National Association of Attorneys General

As the nonpartisan national forum for America's state and territory attorneys general and their staff, NAAG provides collaboration, insight, and expertise to empower and champion America's attorneys general.
Learn More

© 2023 Copyright National Association of Attorneys General

Website by Yoko Co

Internal Feedback / Report an Error

Request an Update / Report an Error

The change you are requesting will be linked to this page. The URL for the page will be included in a hidden field when the form is submitted.
Please enter your change or describe your request. Be sure to reference where the error appears on the page and what needs to be done specifically.
Upload any files that need to be linked to this page. PDF only. Submit another request if you have more than five files to upload.
Drop files here or
Accepted file types: pdf, docx, xls, Max. file size: 50 MB, Max. files: 5.

    Who is requesting this change?(Required)

    Scroll To Top