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Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a challenge to a controversial California law aimed at reclassifying owner-operators as motor carrier employees, carriers and independent contractors could soon be thrust into an uncertain business environment.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on June 30 it has declined to hear an appeal of a California state law aimed at reclassifying owner-operators as motor carrier employees.

A Massachusetts ballot initiative bankrolled by Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc., and DoorDash Inc. to cement their workers’ status as independent contractors will not move forward, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled.

The California Trucking Association in a legal brief described as “head-scratchingly wrong” the U.S. solicitor general’s recommendation that the U.S. Supreme Court decline to hear an appeal of a state law aimed at reclassifying owner-operators as motor carrier employees.

The federal government’s representative before the U.S. Supreme Court is recommending that the high court deny review of the California Trucking Association’s legal challenge of a California law aimed at reclassifying owner-operators as carrier employees.

For decades, the trucking industry’s use of independent owner-operators has been a delicate, but successful, dance between the business and personal needs of motor carriers and contractors. Now, the contractor model’s future is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The California Trucking Association is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a state independent contractor law — known as AB 5 — that it argues should be exempt from enforcement for motor carriers based on federal pre-emption.

The California Trucking Association on June 21 learned that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will not reconsider its earlier rejection of CTA’s challenge to a state independent contractor law. CTA plans to appeal its complaint to the nation’s highest court.

Trade organizations representing motor carriers and independent owner-operators alike say they strongly oppose a new California law that aims to reclassify large numbers of independent contractors as company employees, according to new documents filed in a recent appellate court challenge to the law.

The California Trucking Association has asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a full appellate court review of a three-member panel’s earlier decision regarding a state law that many in trucking deem unfair to the industry.