Reading Room Document

Constitutional Limitations on Federal Government Participation in Binding Arbitration

The Appointments Clause does not prohibit the federal government from submitting to binding arbitration. Nor does any other constitutional provision or doctrine impose a general prohibition against the federal government entering into binding arbitration, although the Constitution does impose substantial limits on the authority of the federal government to enter into binding arbitration in specific cases. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/20196/download.

September 7, 1995