Written by Sulivan and Cromwell on Oct 20, 2025
The Supreme Court will hear a decision examining the scope of an exemption from the Federal Arbitration Act with potentially significant ramifications.
On October 20, 2025, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Flowers Foods, Inc. v. Brock to decide whether local “last-mile” delivery drivers who never cross state lines themselves, but who deliver products that have traveled in interstate commerce, are covered by the Federal Arbitration Act’s (“FAA”) exemption for transportation workers.
The FAA, which generally provides that arbitration agreements are “valid, irrevocable, and enforceable,” includes an exemption for “seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” Courts, however, have differed about which workers qualify as being engaged in interstate commerce. As we previously discussed, in 2022 the Supreme Court ruled that workers “who load cargo on and off airplanes belong to a ‘class of workers in foreign or interstate commerce’” to which the FAA does not apply.
The case stems from a dispute in Colorado federal court between Angelo Brock, a delivery driver, and Flowers Foods, Inc. (“Flowers”), a national baked goods company. Brock alleged wage-and-hour violations under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and Flowers sought to compel arbitration under the FAA.
On November 12, 2024, the Tenth Circuit ruled in Brock’s favor, holding that his claims could proceed in court because he qualified for the FAA’s transportation worker exemption. The court’s analysis turned on what it described as “the mechanics of the delivery itself.” Delivery drivers like Brock help Flowers get its products onto retail shelves: retail stores stock baked goods supplied by Brock, who delivers the products from Flowers. As the court noted, Brock “starts the interstate-delivery process” by ordering products made in out-of-state bakeries. Flowers then ships the products to a local warehouse, and Brock picks them up within a day of delivery and brings them to retail stores. For example, when a supermarket in Colorado orders Wonder Bread, Brock buys the bread, baked in out-of-state facilities, from Flowers, collects it from a nearby warehouse, and delivers it to the supermarket.
The Tenth Circuit concluded that Brock’s intrastate route “forms the last leg of the products’ continuous interstate [journey],” making him “an integral part of a single, unbroken stream of interstate commerce.” Citing the First Circuit’s decision in Waithaka v. Amazon.com, Inc. and the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Rittmann v. Amazon.com, Inc., both of which treated last-mile delivery drivers as part of interstate commerce and therefore outside the FAA’s reach, the court distinguished Brock from purely local couriers.
After losing in the Tenth Circuit, Flowers Foods, Inc. petitioned the Supreme Court to review the decision. The company urged the Court to adopt the approach taken by the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, which focus on the type of work the driver performs, such as whether the driver crosses state lines, rather than on whether the goods themselves have moved in interstate commerce.
The Supreme Court’s ruling could have broad implications for the enforceability of arbitration agreements, particularly for employers that rely on distributors.
