Cite as: 532 U. S. 105 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
conclusion that all employment contracts are excluded from the FAA conflicts with every other Court of Appeals to have addressed the question. See, e. g., McWilliams v. Logicon, Inc., 143 F. 3d 573, 575-576 (CA10 1998); O'Neil v. Hilton Head Hospital, 115 F. 3d 272, 274 (CA4 1997); Pryner v. Tractor Supply Co., 109 F. 3d 354, 358 (CA7 1997); Cole v. Burns Int'l Security Servs., 105 F. 3d 1465, 1470-1472 (CADC 1997); Rojas v. TK Communications, Inc., 87 F. 3d 745, 747-748 (CA5 1996); Asplundh Tree Co. v. Bates, 71 F. 3d 592, 596-601 (CA6 1995); Erving v. Virginia Squires Basketball Club, 468 F. 2d 1064, 1069 (CA2 1972); Dickstein v. DuPont, 443 F. 2d 783, 785 (CA1 1971); Tenney Engineering, Inc. v. United Elec. & Machine Workers of Am., 207 F. 2d 450 (CA3 1953). We granted certiorari to resolve the issue. 529 U. S. 1129 (2000).
II
A
Congress enacted the FAA in 1925. As the Court has explained, the FAA was a response to hostility of American courts to the enforcement of arbitration agreements, a judicial disposition inherited from then-longstanding English practice. See, e. g., Allied-Bruce Terminix Cos. v. Dobson, 513 U. S. 265, 270-271 (1995); Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U. S. 20, 24 (1991). To give effect to this purpose, the FAA compels judicial enforcement of a wide range of written arbitration agreements. The FAA's coverage provision, § 2, provides that
"[a] written provision in any maritime transaction or a contract evidencing a transaction involving commerce to settle by arbitration a controversy thereafter arising out of such contract or transaction, or the refusal to perform the whole or any part thereof, or an agreement in writing to submit to arbitration an existing controversy arising out of such a contract, transaction, or refusal, shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such
111
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007