Justices Limit Federal Jurisdiction Over Arbitration Awards (1)

The U.S. Supreme Court restricted Thursday when federal courts have jurisdiction to confirm or vacate an arbitration award under certain sections of the Federal Arbitration Act.

The FAA authorizes parties to an arbitration agreement to petition a federal court for various forms of relief, but that doesn’t itself create jurisdiction over the matter. Therefore a federal court must have an “independent jurisdictional basis” to resolve the matter, the high court said.

In 2009, the Supreme Court held that in deciding whether there’s a jurisdictional basis to decide a petition to compel arbitration under Section 4 of the FAA, a federal ...