QUESTION PRESENTED

Following this Court’s decision in Hall Street Associates v. Mattel, Inc., 552 U.S. 576 (2008), the lower courts have been in disagreement about whether “manifest disregard of the law” is grounds to vacate an arbitral award, causing confusion which the Court declined to resolve in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. Animalfeeds International Corp., 559 U.S. 662, 672 n.3 (2010).

The question presented, therefore, is whether a federal court with jurisdiction to vacate an arbitral award under the Federal Arbitration Act may do so on the grounds that the arbitrators acted with manifest disregard of the law – that is, that the arbitrators correctly stated the applicable law, but proceeded to disregard it.