The U.S. Supreme Court stunned the freight hauling industry by rejecting an appeal from the California Trucking Association, hoping to preserve the right to self-employment.
“We are disappointed the Court does not recognize the irrevocable damage eliminating independent truckers will have on interstate commerce and communities across the state,” the trucking association reportedly stated.
After losing in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, trucking advocacy organizations managed to acquire an exemption until California Trucking Association v. Bonta reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The hopes of continuing to haul freight as independent truckers and owner-operators were summarily dashed when the court recently declined to hear the case.
California approved its controversial, if not infamous AB5 law in 2019. The measure effectively eliminates self-employment when someone performs tasks that are similar to a company’s ordinary course of business. That’s precisely what independent truckers do when negotiating with freight carriers. Ride-share drivers affiliated with Uber and Lyft were able to get on the ballot and secure an exemption. But the California courts ruled their favored position was unconstitutional. Despite ongoing challenges, AB5 went into effect in 2020.
Another AB5 challenge working its way through the courts was recently rejected by the high court as well. The American Society for Journalists and Authors and the National Press Photographers Association brought a lawsuit claiming AB5 violates freelance journalists’ First Amendment free speech rights. The California courts ruled that the law classifies workers and does not inhibit the ability to write or express views. Basically, it now dictates how freelancers earn a living.
“The court’s decision to not hear our appeal is a loss for the thousands of freelancers who have built thriving careers through the freedom and flexibility that independent contracting provides,” Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Jim Manley reportedly said. The Solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the truckers’ appeal, claiming there’s no reason to revisit the lower court rulings.
“Moreover, the interlocutory posture of this case and the need to resolve a threshold issue of state law — namely, whether motor carriers and owner-operators may fall within the business-to-business exemption under California law — make this case a poor vehicle in which to address the question presented. Further review is unwarranted,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar reportedly stated to the high court.
The U.S. Supreme Court effectively upholding AB5 as federally constitutional has broad implications. The test used to determine whether a trucker — or any working individual for that matter — can remain self-employed revolves around “work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.”
Now that AB5 applies to truckers, owner-operators must either become employees or find good-paying work elsewhere.
Sources:
With all that is going on in the country now, we need to band together and take our country back. We have the power to do it but many of you are too spineless to stand your ground. Park em for 2 weeks and see what happens when some politicians fat wife cant get her bon bons.
EXACTLY! Won’t take that long. Gas stations will run out in 24 hrs, grocery stores in a 2-3 days. Factories will run out of parts in 2-3 days. One week should do it. Everyone just take a weeks vacation, ON THE SAME WEEK.
If you could get more than two drivers to agree on anything truckers could bring this country to its knees, but to many are to worried or focused on the next buck to think about the future. If all the CA drivers would of shut down when they first brought this up they could of stopped it but now it’s to late
CA gypos are happy they don’t get cheated out of benefits anymore.
No drivers will ever shut down…you-all just take it and take it and take it. So learn to like it.
I’m ready name the dates
Hmm..Time to pack up and move all business offices, Equipment, and employees out of the state of California.to Nevada/Oregon or Arizona..
I suspect that the California law cannot apply to out of state transport businesses if said business Does Not have any dispatchers or plant and equipment domiciled within California?
I’m game when do we park em?? I’m sick n tired of what’s happening to our country by this administration!!
I’m curious gentlemen and only time will tell us, how long before other states begin implementing what CA did? I’ve been in this industry since 2007, an O/O leased to a carrier since 2008. I’ve never had my own authority. Best to us ladies and gentlemen as we work through this.