The U. S. Supreme Court applied an ancient Chinese maxim to a class arbitration entitlement questions in an opinion issued earlier this week: “No tickee, no washee.” Or something like that. Anyway, here’s the scoop from Stanford law student Vivian Wang on the SCOTUS Blog.

Stolt-Nielson S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International (08-1198)

In Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds (No. 08-1198), the Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act prohibits arbitrators from imposing class arbitration on parties who have not agreed to authorize class arbitration. Justice Alito authored the majority opinion, which was joined by the Chief Justice and Justices Thomas, Kennedy, and Scalia. Justice Ginsburg filed a dissenting opinion that was joined by Justices Stevens and Breyer. Justice Sotomayor did not participate in the case. [Here’s the rest of the post.]