The U.S. Supreme Court asked the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on a case involving truckers who want a carve-out from a law making it difficult to defend their independent contractor status in California, as well as an airline’s attempt to fend off the state’s wage and hour laws.
The justices Monday said that they want the federal government’s opinion on issues in both cases that could determine when federal law supersedes state laws seeking to govern job rights for workers in the transportation industry.
The California Trucking Association sought high court review of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling that said the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act didn’t override California’s worker status law, known as Assembly Bill 5.
The Ninth Circuit found no federal preemption of A.B. 5 because the state law didn’t relate to motor carrier prices, routes, or services.
The justices also requested the solicitor general to weigh in on Alaska Airlines and Virgin America’s appeal of a Ninth Circuit decision the airlines say guts the Airline Deregulation Act. The airlines say the appeals court concocted an overly restrictive test for federal preemption that undermines that law’s core purpose: superseding state laws that significantly affect air carrier prices, routes, or services.
The trucking industry relies...
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