Flowers Foods, Inc. v. Brock: The Most Important Supreme Court Case of 2026 You Didn’t Hear About
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Brock Created a New Layer of Congressional Power Over ‘Interstate’ Economic Activity
Article Written by Jett James Pruitt
On May 28, 2026, the United States Supreme Court delivered a consequential decision in Flowers Foods, Inc. v. Brock regarding the extent to which the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) can be exercised in settling legal disputes between parties engaged in interstate commerce.
For context, Flowers Foods, Inc. is a prominent producer of packaged baked goods in the United States, selling popular brands such as Wonder, Nature’s Own, and Dave’s Killer Bread across 19 states. The company was the second-largest baking company in the U.S. as of February 2013.
Crucially, Flowers utilizes a “direct-store-delivery” system in which the company directly contracts with individuals it classifies as ‘independent distributers.’ The independent distributors then purchase the right to distribute its subsidiary products within specified regions.
In 2022, franchisee Angelo Brock sued Flowers in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, claiming the company deliberately misclassified its distributors in the area as ‘independent contractors’ to underpay them in violation of state and federal law. Prior to this, Brock picked up Flowers’ products from a warehouse in Colorado, loaded them into his vehicle, and transported them to local stores throughout the Denver area, all without crossing state borders. When Brock signed both a “Distributor Agreement” and a “Personal Guaranty” with the company in 2016, the two parties stipulated that any future dispute must be resolved under the FAA.
Within this context, Flowers motioned to compel arbitration (i.e., the process in which an independent mediator settles a legal dispute between two parties outside of a formal court), contending the FAA requires courts to dismiss cases when the parties previously agreed to resolve disputes via adjudication.
However, the district court ultimately dismissed Flowers’ attempt on the basis that Brock belonged to a category of workers engaged in interstate commerce, and was therefore exempted from compelled arbitration under the FAA.
The U.S. Court for Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision. Flowers subsequently petitioned for a Writ of Certiorari from the Supreme Court, which it granted on October 20, 2025.
Oral arguments were conducted on March 25, 2026.
The central question of the case was whether workers who do not deliver goods across state borders or even interact with vehicles that cross state boundaries, but do transport, load, and unload goods previously moved across multiple regions, are classified as ‘transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce?’ If they are, they are thus entitled to exemption from compelled arbitration under Section 1 of the FAA.
In a 9-0 decision, the Court said ‘Yes,’ thereby ruling in favor of Brock.
Penning the majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch mentioned various legal definitions of the term ‘interstate commerce’ to conclude “Nothing in those terms [in reference to Black Law’s Dictionary] requires an individual to cross state lines or interact with a vehicle that does. Interstate commerce includes transporting products ‘between points in one state and points in another state.’ That involves not just crossing state lines, but intrastate activity too. Though ‘a continuous carriage’ may begin in one State and end in another, ‘much of the journey’ can take place ‘within the limits of a single state.’ And at least sometimes, a person can ‘take part,’ be ‘employ[ed],’ or be ‘involve[d]’ in that continuous journey without leaving a State or touching vehicles that do.”
Given he handled goods during a necessary segment of a multi-regional transaction, Brock legally engaged in interstate commerce.
Outside of Gorsuch’s analysis, previous Supreme Court decisions such as The Daniel Ball (1871), Norfolk & Western R. Co. v. Pennsylvania (1890), Rhodes v. Iowa (1898), and Rearick v. Pennsylvania (1906) give weight to the notion that multiple independent actors can engage in a single interstate transaction. On this premise, the Court’s recent conclusion that Brock was a participant in interstate commerce is relatively unsurprising.
However, there is one pressing difference between Brock and the aforementioned cases: the 2026 decision addressed the purview of the FAA, a federal statue exempting a category of workers from compelled arbitration, rather than the Commerce Clause of Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution granting Congress broad authority to enact laws affecting interstate commerce. Put simply, Brock affirmed a ‘right to not do something’ based on a conditional premise.
Under this reasoning, Brock will be tested in cases involving legal disputes among employees and independent contractors who feel financially threatened by, or otherwise object to, the use of AI.
As AI becomes an essential element of daily economic activity, U.S. federal courts will ultimately be tasked in determining how Section 1 of the FAA applies to individuals in professions (e.g., writers, computer programmers, and financial analysts) who may seek compensation or file punitive lawsuits against companies and employers embedding AI in their operations.
With 81% of Gen Z Americans concerned about AI making it more difficult for them to get a job, the intersection between federal contract law, economic innovation, and Congressional power to regulate interstate commerce will become more apparent over the next few years.
While national and international media has largely overlooked this case, Brock will eventually emerge at the forefront of America’s political discussion within the next few decades.
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Jett James Pruitt is a Native American, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of the bestselling book THROUGH THE EYES OF A YOUNG AMERICAN. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of TheGenZPost.com and a political strategist specializing in Generation Z voter trends. He is currently a B.A. International Politics student at The University of London Institute in Paris. His next book, THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE: What America's Political Parties Must Do To Win Over Generation Z, will be released in major bookstores worldwide early 2027.
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