SCOTUS: Last mile drivers can qualify for Federal Arbitration Act §1’s exemption without crossing state lines or interacting with vehicles that do.

Flowers Foods v. Brock (US Supreme Ct 05/28/2026) [PDF]

Flowers Foods depends in part on franchisees such as Angelo Brock who buy the distribution rights to Flowers’s products in specific geographic territories. Brock picks up Flowers’s products from a warehouse in Colorado and delivers them to local stores, all without leaving the State.

When Brock sued Flowers, Flowers moved to compel arbitration. The trial court declined, holding that Brock was in a class of workers “engaged in . . . interstate commerce.” The Supreme Court agreed.

The statutory text does not support a rule requiring workers to cross state lines or interact with vehicles that do.