Second Preliminary Injunction Sought Against AB-5 for the Trucking Industry

The Cullen Law Firm, PLLC, filed a motion on December 7, 2022 in the U.S. District Court in San Diego, California, for a new preliminary injunction to ensure the state does not enforce AB5 in the trucking industry at least until the pending legal challenge has concluded.

Filed on behalf of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Inc., (“OOIDA”), this was the first opportunity that OOIDA has had to ask for a preliminary injunction after the court granted OOIDA’s motion to intervene in the case originally brought by the California Trucking Association (“CTA”). The Court called OOIDA’s intervention “not only timely, but prescient.” That decision can be found here.

OOIDA’s motion is based on a dormant Commerce Clause claim under the U.S. Constitution, a different legal claim than the federal preemption issue that was at the center of the CTA’s previous preliminary injunction effort, which the Court of Appeals rejected, dissolving the original injunction. This claim asserts that AB-5 imposes an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce and that OOIDA is likely to succeed in this claim.

This motion is also supported by the declarations of OOIDA President Todd Spencer and three independent owner-operator truckers describing how the state’s enforcement of AB-5 would cause owner-operators and motor carriers to experience irreparable harm. Their declarations describe how AB-5 would require them to either give up their business hauling loads that bring them into California or give up their independent owner-operator business that they have worked many years to establish and make successful. None expressed a preference of becoming a company driver, an employee of a motor carrier.

The current schedule calls for the Defendants, the State of California and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to respond to OOIDA’s motion by February 8, 2023, and then OOIDA may reply by March 1, 2023.

On December 7, 2022, the CTA filed a motion with the court asking for an extension of time for it and OOIDA to file a new motion for preliminary injunction in early January 2022 rather than on December 7, but as of this writing (the afternoon of December 9), there has been no court order on that motion.

A copy of the OOIDA motion and supporting documents may be found here.

For more information, please email info@cullenlaw.com