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25 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 1 (2019-2020)

handle is hein.journals/haneg25 and id is 1 raw text is: The Supreme Court's Lamps Plus Arbitration Decision: A Fading Light for Class Actions Imre S. Szalai* CONTENTS I. Introduction .......................................... 2 II. A Summary of the Proceedings and the Supreme Court's Decision in Lamps Plus ....................... 5 A. The District Court's Order Permitting Class Proceedings ....................................... 5 B. The Ninth Circuit's Decision Affirming the Order Allowing Class Proceedings ................ 6 C. The Supreme Court's Splintered Decision Denying the Availability of Class Proceedings ..... 7 III. The Majority's Decision in Lamps Plus Is Fundamentally Flawed on Multiple Levels ........... 11 A. The Majority Opinion Displays a Narrow, Warped Understanding of Consent, the Foundational Principle of Arbitration Law ........ 11 B. The Supreme Court's Lamps Plus Majority Propagates a Flawed Myth About Arbitration ..... 19 C. The Majority's Critique of Contra Proferentem, Applied More Broadly, Reveals the Weaknesses of the Court's Arbitration Jurisprudence .......... 23 D. The Lamps Plus Decision Reveals Concerns about the Development of Arbitration Law ........ 26 IV. The Disappearing Availability of Class Proceedings when an Arbitration Clause Exists ................... 27 A. Class Proceedings May Occur if the Arbitration Clause is Defective or Members of the Class Never Entered into a Binding Arbitration C lause ............................................ 27 * Judge John D. Wessel Distinguished Professor of Social Justice, Loyola Uni- versity New Orleans College of Law; Yale University, BA; Columbia University, JD.