Originally published at: Inside the Legal Battle That Could Reshape Commercial Licensing - FreightWaves
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found FMCSA likely violated federal law when it attempted to eliminate approximately 200,000 commercial driver licenses without following standard procedures. The November 13 emergency stay revealed failures that leave 200,000 drivers in legal limbo while courts define the boundaries of administrative power during claimed emergencies.
They shouldn’t be focusing on the fatal accidents. They need to show that those who were issued non domiciled CDLs are not obeying traffic control devices, HoS regulations, and are not showing up to court summons or paying out insurance claims. There are too many truck drivers who ignore the speed limits to the point they are almost 30mph over and merge into lanes without checking for clearance.
Something tells me this spells bad news- this problem was allowed to metastisize for a long time
But courts scrutinize emergency claims carefully. Agencies can’t manufacture urgency from problems they tolerated for years. They can’t bypass procedures simply because following them would be inconvenient or might generate opposition. They must demonstrate that immediate implementation addresses genuine emergencies where delay would cause concrete harm.
I had a non-domiciled CDL driver who drove for me. He’s here legally with a current EAD. His NDCDL was downgraded because he’s here under C08 (asylum pending) status. This guy came here and did everything he was supposed to, including going to a very well-known approved CDL training program. While I fully support the crackdown on illegal drivers, this man was “collateral damage”. I had to remove him from my driver pool. Thankfully, we were able to keep him employed but he has lost hours and, consequentially, his paycheck has suffered. He is the sole supporter for his little family. Cases like this are what make me question the route FMCSA has taken. They put a Band-Aid on a hemorrhaging wound, and my guy is suffering for it. This was a panic move on FMCSA’s part instead of a deliberate and thoughtful solution to a problem that has been here for years.