Daytime television judge loses high court case

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former Florida judge who appears on daytime television as "Judge Alex" to decide minor squabbles lost his own Supreme Court case on Wednesday stemming from a contract dispute with his former manager.

By an 8-1 vote, the high court ruled that Alex Ferrer, a former Florida police officer and trial court judge who is "Judge Alex" on a Fox television network program, must go to arbitration to resolve the dispute.

The case involved Arnold Preston, an entertainment industry lawyer in California. When Preston sought commissions that Ferrer refused to pay, Preston demanded arbitration, as called for in the contract they signed in 2002.

Ferrer asked the California Labor Commission for a declaration that Preston had violated state law by acting as a talent agent without a required license, making the contract unenforceable.

In the Supreme Court's ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that an arbitrator, and not the state labor commissioner, has the authority to decide the dispute, including whether Preston acted an unlicensed talent agent.

Ginsburg rejected Ferrer's argument that the case could go to arbitration after the labor commissioner ruled, saying that would result in a long delay.

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter who sided with Ferrer.

(Reporting by James Vicini)