Supreme Court Denies AB5 Petition

The Supreme Court declined to hear a case against California’s Assembly Bill 5 (AB5). 

The petition, filed by Uber and Postmates drivers Lydia Olson and Miguel Perez, who both claimed that AB5 violates the Equal Protection Clause, was denied on Oct. 15. AB5 makes it more difficult to classify workers as independent contractors in the state of California. 

“In an effort to punish network companies like Uber and Postmates, the California Legislature created a two-tier legal standard that imposed a stringent test for independent-contractor status on disfavored network companies and others, while rolling back legal protections for millions of workers from hundreds of other different professions and industries—with no rational basis for the differing treatment,” reads the petition. 

In March, a California judge denied a preliminary injunction against AB5 in a case filed by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the California Trucking Association. In April, the two groups appealed the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld AB5 in a June decision.