Principal Investments, Inc. v. Harrison

Issue: (1) Whether, given “the presumption . . . that the arbitrator should decide ‘allegations of waiver,’” Howsam v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., a court violates the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) by presuming that allegations of waiver based upon a party's pre-arbitration litigation conduct should be decided by the court, not the arbitrator; and (2) whether, in light of the holding in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, that “[w]hen state law prohibits outright the arbitration of a particular type of claim, the . . . conflicting rule is displaced by the FAA,” the FAA preempts a state's waiver doctrine that categorically prohibits arbitration of abuse-of-process claims arising from prior litigation.