Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Waffle House, Inc.

Decided January 15, 2002. John Paul Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 99-1823 · 534 U.S. 279 (2002) · Cited 1,129 times

Holding

An agreement between an employer and an employee to arbitrate employment-related disputes does not bar the EEOC from pursuing victim-specific judicial relief, such as backpay, reinstatement, and damages, in an ADA enforcement action.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court. Read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–3.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp. · 500 U.S. 20 (1991)
• General Telephone Co. of the Northwest, Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · 446 U.S. 318 (1980)
• Occidental Life Insurance v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · 432 U.S. 355 (1977)
• Mastrobuono v. Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc. · 514 U.S. 52 (1995)
• Mitsubishi Motors Corp. v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc. · 473 U.S. 614 (1985)
• Volt Info. Sciences, Inc. v. Bd. of Trustees of Leland Stanford Jr. U. · 489 U.S. 468 (1989)
• Ford Motor Co. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · 458 U.S. 219 (1982)
• Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital v. Mercury Construction Corp. · 460 U.S. 1 (1983)
• Southland Corp. v. Keating · 465 U.S. 1 (1984)
• Allied-Bruce Terminix Cos., Inc. v. Dobson · 513 U.S. 265 (1995)
• Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams · 532 U.S. 105 (2001)
• Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody · 422 U.S. 405 (1975)
• Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co. · 388 U.S. 395 (1967)
• City of Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc. · 453 U.S. 247 (1981)
• Scherk v. Alberto-Culver Co. · 417 U.S. 506 (1974)
• McKennon v. Nashville Banner Publishing Co. · 513 U.S. 352 (1995)
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Shell Oil Co. · 466 U.S. 54 (1984)
• Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad v. Railway Labor Executives' Ass'n · 491 U.S. 490 (1989)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Preston v. Ferrer · 552 U.S. 346 (2008)
• Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela · 587 U.S. 176 (2019)
• Stolt-Nielsen S. A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp. · 559 U.S. 662 (2010)
• Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board · 535 U.S. 137 (2002)
• Arthur Andersen LLP v. Carlisle · 556 U.S. 624 (2009)
• Ragsdale v. Wolverine World Wide, Inc. · 535 U.S. 81 (2002)
• 14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett · 556 U.S. 247 (2009)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2002). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-08-15. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).