Why trucking is peeved at the U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court has been making decisions surrounding many things but more recently has hit the trucking industry hard with these cases related to freight.

  1. California Trucking Association Inc. v. Bonta. The trade association argued California’s employee classification law was preempted by federal law. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case at the end of June.
  2. C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. v. Miller. C.H. Robinson argued federal law prevents a negligence claim from being filed against a broker. This case was turned down just a few days before the previous one.

Both decisions were remanded to the lower courts by the Supreme Court. In the case of the state of California, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the employee classification law, known as AB5, was constitutional under federal law. Freight Waves reported, “this put in jeopardy the livelihoods of the state’s estimated 70,000 owner-operators, whose work may no longer be lawful.” Click here for the full story.