Jessica Denson, a national phone bank administrator for the Trump Campaign, brought a complaint against the Campaign Committee for various forms of harassment during her employment. Judge Arlene Bluth of the Supreme Court of N.Y. for N.Y. County held that the non-disclosure agreement could not be used to compel arbitration of affirmative claims arising out of Denson’s employment. The court found that:
Here, the issue is defendant’s conduct. With the instant agreement, which governs five specific aspects of plaintiff’s conduct, the Court would be abdicating its responsibility if it deferred the question of arbitrability of defendant’s conduct to an arbitrator.
(Emphasis in the original.)
I note that the case is distinguishable from the arbitration request that the Campaign Committee appears to have brought against Omarosa Manigault-Newman.