U.S. Supreme Court Rules for Flowers Foods Distributors in Landmark Arbitration Decision

Unanimous Court holds “last-mile” delivery workers qualify for Federal Arbitration Act’s transportation-worker exemption — even when not crossing state lines

SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES, May 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled in favor of Angelo Brock and a proposed class of Flowers Foods distributors, holding that a worker who transports goods on the intrastate leg of an interstate journey can qualify for the Federal Arbitration Act’s Section 1 exemption — even if the worker never crosses state lines and never interacts with a vehicle that does. The decision in Flowers Foods, Inc. v. Brock, No. 24-935, authored by Justice Gorsuch, affirms the Tenth Circuit and clears the way for Mr. Brock’s misclassification claims to proceed in federal court rather than in private arbitration.

The FAA generally requires courts to enforce private arbitration agreements, but Section 1 carves out the “contracts of employment” of “seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” Flowers Foods asked the Court to adopt a bright-line rule that a worker can never qualify for the exemption unless he personally crosses state lines or interacts with a vehicle that does. The Court rejected that rule, explaining that nothing in the statute’s text supports it and that, since the founding era, intrastate participants in a continuous interstate shipment have been understood to be engaged in interstate commerce.

Mr. Brock is a “last-mile” distributor who picks up Flowers’ baked goods — products like Wonder Bread, Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, and Tastykake — from a Colorado warehouse after they have traveled from out-of-state bakeries, and delivers them to local retailers. He sued Flowers Foods, Flowers Bakeries, LLC, and Flowers Baking Co. of Denver, LLC for misclassifying him and other distributors as “independent contractors” in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Colorado wage law. Flowers moved to compel individual arbitration; the District of Colorado denied the motion, the Tenth Circuit affirmed, and the Supreme Court has now affirmed as well.

Craig Nicholas, a partner at Nicholas & Tomasevic, LLP, which represents Mr. Brock together with Gupta Wessler LLP, described the ruling as “a decisive win for the workers who move America’s goods. The Court has confirmed what common sense and a century of precedent already told us — that workers driving one leg of an interstate shipment are engaged in interstate commerce, and Congress exempted them from forced arbitration.”

The decision has implications well beyond Flowers Foods. Courts and employers across the country have spent years litigating whether last-mile delivery drivers, gig workers, warehouse loaders, and others fall within Section 1’s exemption from the FAA. Today’s opinion makes clear that the answer does not turn on whether a worker’s truck crosses a state border or whether the worker touches a vehicle moving interstate, but on whether the worker is part of the interstate transport of goods.

Nicholas & Tomasevic, LLP is a San Diego–based class action law firm that has represented Flowers Foods distributors and other misclassified workers throughout California and the country in wage and hour and independent-contractor misclassification litigation.

Mr. Nicholas is available for comment at cnicholas@nicholaslaw.org or (619) 384-7430.
SOURCE Craig M. Nicholas

Craig Nicholas
Nicholas & Tomasevic, LLP
+1 619-384-7430
email us here

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