I understand the issue of the law. I understand that courts allow employers to discipline employees. I understand that that was the basis for the decision.
My point was that the NFL process was so rigged and dishonest that the court overturned the decision. The appeals court ruled 2-1.
The bar to overturn is extremely high. The process must be completely dishonest and egregiously fraudulent. It was dishonest enough to be overturned by the first judge. It was almost dishonest enough to lose on appeal.
Quote: “The bar to overturn is extremely high. The process must be completely dishonest and egregiously fraudulent. It was dishonest enough to be overturned by the first judge. It was almost dishonest enough to lose on appeal.”
First a correction from earlier. It is the Federal, not American, Arbitration Act that governs civil awards. Sorry for that mistake. Secondly, in order to overturn an arbitration decision it is not the conduct of the opposing party (the NFL) that is challenged but of the arbitrator.
The NFL could have pulled every corrupt, crappy move in the book and the arbitration process leaves it to the arbitrator(s) to sort that. Once they render their decision then the challenge in court reviews not what the NFL did but what the arbitrator did.
Here, the lower court seemed to get that a bit confused. It conflated the NFL’s actions with the arbitrator and arbitration (a path mutually agreed upon by both parties under collective bargaining).
Regardless of the NFL’s crappy conduct, it was for the arbitrator to rule on and not the court.