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

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Truckers’ Challenge to AB5, California’s Anti-Freelancing Law
A gasoline truck drives along a road in Richmond, Calif., on May 2, 2022. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Matthew Vadum
Updated:
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The Supreme Court turned away a challenge to California’s “radical” worker-classification law that virtually outlaws independent contracting, including independent trucking, and clamps down on the so-called gig economy.

The ruling has the effect of ending a temporary stay preventing the enforcement of the law, known as AB5, against motor carriers while the appeal to the Supreme Court was pending. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit previously denied the challenge to the law, finding the law wasn’t preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994, which was created to prevent states from undermining federal deregulation of the trucking industry by imposing regulations of their own.