Group Seeks Preliminary Injunction Against California’s AB5

An organization has filed a preliminary injunction to keep California from enforcing Assembly Bill 5, claiming it violates the Commerce Clause. 

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) filed the preliminary injunction Dec. 7 in the Southern District of California. It was filed as part of a multi-organization lawsuit against the state to keep the law — which makes it harder to classify some workers as independent contractors — from taking effect. 

OOIDA’s filing purports that the law, referred to as AB5, “will cause irreparable harm to motor carriers and drivers that outweighs the state’s interest in the application of” AB5. 

The Commerce Clause prevents state governments from imposing impermissible burdens on interstate commerce. 

In a declaration submitted with the motion, OOIDA President Todd Spencer stated that AB5 could cause owner-operators to stop doing business in California and impose harm to OOIDA’s members “from which they would not easily be able to recover.” 

The California Trucking Association (CTA) previously sought a preliminary injunction based on the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA), which initially was granted by the district court before being reversed by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. CTA appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, but the high court declined to hear it.