Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Truckers’ Challenge to AB5, California’s Anti-Freelancing Law

The Supreme Court docket turned away a problem to California’s “radical” worker-classification regulation that nearly outlaws impartial contracting, together with impartial trucking, and clamps down on the so-called gig economy.

The ruling has the impact of ending a short lived keep stopping enforcement of the regulation, referred to as AB5, in opposition to motor carriers whereas the attraction to the Supreme Court docket was pending. The U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the ninth Circuit beforehand denied the problem to the regulation, discovering the regulation was not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994, which was created to forestall states from undermining federal deregulation of the trucking business by imposing rules of their very own.

The regulation is deeply unpopular in California’s struggling enterprise neighborhood.

In response to JD Supra, a authorized publication, the Supreme Court docket’s refusal to overview the case may have “profound penalties for the transportation business and provide chains normally. At a time when transportation assets and provide chains are already burdened, motor carriers, transportation intermediaries, and business shippers should all now adapt to the brand new panorama in California,” the publication wrote. Motor carriers should “consider and undertake different working fashions to mitigate threat in the event that they intend to proceed to do enterprise in California.”

This was the second time in 9 months the Supreme Court docket has refused to listen to an attraction difficult AB5. On Oct. 4, 2021, the courtroom determined to not hear an attraction from a ruling by the Court docket of Attraction of California in a case referred to as Cal Cartage Transportation Specific LLC v. California.

The brand new determination to not hear California Trucking Affiliation v. Bonta, courtroom file 21-194, got here in an unsigned order on June 30 earlier than the excessive courtroom recessed for the summer time. As is their customized, the justices didn’t present causes for his or her determination to reject the case. Rob Bonta, a Democrat, is California’s lawyer common.

Bonta’s workplace stated it was “happy” with the choice, based on Land Line, a commerce publication. “On the California Division of Justice, we’ll proceed to do our half to defend legal guidelines which can be designed to guard staff and guarantee truthful labor and enterprise practices.”

‘Devastating Repercussions’

However business representatives say AB5 will devastate the impartial trucking sector.

“Gasoline has been poured on the fireplace that’s our ongoing provide chain disaster,” the California Trucking Affiliation (CTA), which introduced the attraction, stated in a statement.

“Along with the direct influence on California’s 70,000 owner-operators who’ve seven days to stop long-standing impartial companies, the influence of taking tens of hundreds of truck drivers off the street may have devastating repercussions on an already fragile provide chain, growing prices and worsening runaway inflation,” CTA stated.

“We’re disenchanted the Court docket doesn’t acknowledge the irrevocable harm eliminating impartial truckers may have on interstate commerce and communities throughout the state.”

Todd Spencer, president of the Proprietor-Operator Impartial Drivers Affiliation, additionally lamented the courtroom ruling.

“With AB5 now set to enter impact, hundreds of owner-operators driving in California face an unsure future,” Land Line reported Spencer saying.

“California has offered no steering to owner-operators about how they will work as impartial contractors underneath this new scheme, and truckers will likely be on the mercy of the courts to interpret how the regulation will likely be utilized,” Spencer stated.

“For truckers which have invested their blood, sweat and treasure to create their very own companies, it’s dismaying that lawmakers and the courts are forging forward with this radical coverage that dismisses a helpful enterprise mannequin that has been in place for many years. On the similar time, we all know this is not going to be the final phrase on the legality of AB5 and anticipate to take part in future challenges to the regulation.”

AB5 took impact Jan. 1, 2020.

The statute, which was pushed by organized labor to clamp down on the hard-to-unionize so-called gig financial system represented by corporations akin to Uber and Lyft, was enacted, within the phrases of supporters, to assist staff by stopping their “misclassification.”