United States: Divided 9th Circuit Panel Reverses District Court’s Injunction Related to California AB-5

A divided panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a decision by a federal district court sitting in California that had issued an order temporarily enjoining enforcement of the controversial Assembly Bill 5, which had codified the judge-made “ABC test” for determining if a worker was an independent contractor or an employee. The original injunction action had been successfully argued at the district court level by the California Trucking Association, who contended that the operation of AB 5, as to California truckers, was preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (“F4A”). The majority of the Ninth Circuit panel disagreed with the district court, holding that AB 5 was a generally applicable labor law—and not preempted—since it only affected a motor carrier’s relationship with its work force. It did not bind, compel, or otherwise freeze into place the prices, routes, or services of motor carriers.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the co-Editor-in-Chief and Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law(LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See California Trucking Ass’n v. Bonta, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 12629 (9th Cir., Apr. 28, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 61.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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