Court: Public interest exceeds bid to stop CDL pause

A federal court has rejected a request from the Chinese American Truckers Association for a preliminary injunction over actions by the FMCSA and California DMV regarding non-domiciled CDLs.

Earlier this month, the trucking group filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint took issue with a pause in the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, saying the statewide policy “deprives affected drivers of meaningful individualized process.”

In late September, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued an emergency interim final rule that would pull non-domiciled CDLs from nearly 200,000 individuals. The agency said the “broken” system allowed thousands of unqualified people to receive CDLs. However, a federal lawsuit has put the rule’s effective date on hold, and FMCSA is now reviewing thousands of comments before it unveils a final rule.

Responding to FMCSA’s declaration and the agency’s call to remove “unlawful” CDLs, California paused issuing non-domiciled CDLs and announced the cancellation of some licenses in early 2026. Attempts to delay cancellation led the U.S. Department of Transportation to withhold nearly $160 million from the state.

The Chinese American Truckers Association listed nine members who have been affected by the pause of non-domiciled CDLs.

However, the court found that the public interest of California complying with federal standards outweighs any hardship endured by the trucking group’s members.

“California has already lost more than $150 million in federal highway funding as a result of FMCSA’s determination that the state is non-compliant with federal standards,” the court wrote in the Jan. 20 order. “The final determination is clear that, should California continue to administer its non-domiciled CDL program in a manner FMCSA deems out of compliance with federal standards, FMCSA can withhold additional money and decertify California’s entire CDL program.”

The court added that decertification of the state’s CDL program would be “catastrophic” to California. FMCSA has also threatened to double the amount of withheld funding to $300 million.

“While the court is sympathetic to those individuals who are allegedly impacted by the pause, it cannot be that the interests of those nine individuals (and even many other non-domiciled CDL holders seeking replacement or renewal) outweighs the state’s and public’s interest in continued issuance capacity for all CDLs in the state, along with more than $300 million in highway funding,” the court wrote.

Even more, the court said that if FMCSA decertified California’s CDL program, the Chinese trucker group’s members “would be no better off than they are now.” LL