Page:Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Frank Varela.pdf/31

8 agreement to permit class arbitration. Brief for Petitioners 31 (emphasis deleted). Leaning heavily on dicta from Stolt-Nielsen S. A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., 559 U. S. 662 (2010), Lamps Plus argues that class arbitration is so “fundamental[ly]” different from individual arbitration that the fact that “the district court purported to grant Lamps Plus’s motion is not controlling.” Brief for Petitioners 31.

But Stolt-Nielsen cannot bear the weight Lamps Plus would place on it. We held in Stolt-Nielsen that a party may not be compelled to “submit to class arbitration unless there is a contractual basis for concluding that the party agreed to do so.” 559 U. S., at 684. We did not hold that class arbitration is not arbitration at all. And because class arbitration is arbitration, the District Court’s interpretation of Lamps Plus and Varela’s arbitration agreement to permit class arbitration could not create appellate jurisdiction over the District Court order compelling the parties to arbitrate their dispute. See 9 U. S. C. §16(b)(2) (prohibiting interlocutory appeals of district court orders “directing arbitration to proceed”).

Nor did we hold in Stolt-Nielsen (or anywhere else) that §16 of the FAA permits appeals of interlocutory orders directing arbitration to proceed, so long as the order incorporates some ruling that one party dislikes. If that were the rule, then §16’s limitations on appellate jurisdiction would be near meaningless. Consequently, the courts of appeals have—rightly, I believe—long recognized that they lack jurisdiction over appeals from orders that compel arbitration, “albeit not in the ‘first-choice’” manner of the party that moved to compel. Al Rushaid v. National Oilwell Varco, Inc., 814 F. 3d 300, 304 (CA5 2016). See also, e. g., Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass., Inc. v. ''BCS Ins. Co.'', 671 F. 3d 635, 638 (CA7 2011) (concluding that the court of appeals lacked jurisdiction over an order compelling arbitration but denying a motion to direct arbitrators to