The California Trucking Association’s lawsuit against the application of California’s AB 5 to the trucking industry continues, and a federal judge has ruled that the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association can intervene in the case despite the state’s objections, FreightWaves reports.

The CTA first filed the case in 2018, saying the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (F4A) preempts AB 5’s restrictions on using independent contractors in the state and as a result should be blocked from the state’s trucking business. The CTA also cited the Dormant Commerce Clause, “a legal doctrine that courts in this country have inferred from the Commerce Clause in Article I of the Constitution. The primary focus of the doctrine is barring state protectionism,” according to Logistics Management.

It was the F4A argument that won an injunction barring the state from enforcing the law on the state’s trucking industry, while the Dormant Clause argument was dismissed. Subsequent court fights hinged on the injunction itself, which was ultimately lifted after the US Supreme Court declined to take the case.

The court never weighed in on the F4A argument itself, and the CTA is pursuing that claim as well as seeking to overturn the court’s dismissal of its Dormant Clause argument.

Intervention. The OOIDA first sought to intervene in April 2021, saying the CTA does “not adequately represent the distinct interstate commerce interstate of OOIDA and its members.”

The state argued in a filing last week that it’s too late to let OOIDA into the case, telling the court it was already too late when the organization first made its request in 2021. However, the court disagreed, ruling Sept. 22 that the OOIDA can be allowed as an intervenor. Judge Roger Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, noted that previous interveners had been allowed, specifically the Teamsters, FreightWaves reported.

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