The power of a delegation clause in an arbitration agreement

1. The parties agreed to arbitrate employment-related disputes.

2. The arbitration agreement delegated the question of the agreement’s validity to an arbitrator to decide.

3. But the trial court denied a motion to compel arbitration due to a severability clause.

4. And the trial court took it upon itself to excise an unconscionable provision.

The 9th Circuit reversed the trial court’s judgment denying a motion to compel arbitration, vacated the judgment that the parties’ arbitration agreement was unconscionable, and ordered arbitration. The trial court should not have addressed the unconscionability issue in the first place, but instead should have enforced the delegation clause requiring an arbitrator’s resolution.

Sandler v. Modernizing Medicine (9th Cir 03/19/2026) [PDF]