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Court of Appeal:
Wiley Sees No Equal Protection Impediment to Excepting Financial Professionals Such As Stock Brokers
From Usual ‘ABC’ Standard for Determining If a Person Is an Employee or Independent Contractor
The Court of Appeal for this district has upheld the constitutionality of a Labor Code provision that sets a different standard for determining whether a securities broker is an independent contractor or an employee than the yardstick applied to most workers, with the contention that the legislative scheme contravenes the federal constitutional right to equal protection being rejected.
Justice John Shepard Wiley Jr. of Div. Eight wrote the opinion, filed Wednesday. In it, he quoted Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes—in a “timeless dissent” to a “hated” 1905 U.S. Supreme Court opinion striking down a state regulation limiting employees of bakeries to a 60-hour-workweek—as cautioning against judicial legislation.
“It is a grave thing for unelected judges to strike down the work of elected representatives,” Wiley said, alluding to Holmes’s admonition in Lochner v. New York as to “the right of a majority,” through legislation, “to embody its opinions in law.” He commented:
“Where no binding authority compels us, this countermajoritarian difficulty restrains us.”
Invalidation Sought
The plaintiff and appellant, securities broker John Quinn, wanted Div. Eight to invalidate Labor Code §2750.3(b)(4). It provides that the “ABC test” set forth in the California Supreme...
For the past several months, a coordinated digital campaign has targeted community archivists in Bangladesh who document and preserve audiovisual material related to the July 2024 Student-People’s...