The Sikh Coalition and Asian Law Caucus on Tuesday filed a class-action lawsuit against California, saying the state cancelling some 20,000 non-domiciled CDLs on U.S. DOT orders was unlawful.
The lawsuit seeks to halt the California Department of Motor Vehicles’ CDL cancellations, saying it would "result in mass work stoppages beginning January 5, 2026."
California and DOT have had an eventful few months, with DOT in September demanding a total shutdown and audit of the state's issuance of CDLs to temporary residents on work authorizations. California faced losing millions in federal funding, as DOT found them in significant noncompliance with federal licensing regs.
Since then, California and DOT have repeatedly clashed on what kind of CDL issuance for non-citizens is acceptable. In November, California came around to DOT's way of thinking and started canceling some 20,000 CDLs the DOT said violated federal law.
[Related: California refused to revoke 20,000 wrongly issued CDLs in note to DOT]
Most recently, California informed the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration it believed it met all the conditions laid out to resume non-domiciled CDL issuance, but the day before California was set to begin reissuing licenses, FMCSA shut it down.
Now, California finds itself in trouble with the state's non-domiciled CDL population.
Filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, the class-action lawsuit comes from the "Jakara Movement and five commercial drivers who have been deprived of their rights and livelihoods," said a release from the Sikh Coalition.
The lawsuit asks the court to stop California from rescinding the 20,000 CDLs.
"The lawsuit follows 60-day cancellation notices sent by the DMV in November and December to drivers whose CDLs were flagged due to alleged mismatched expiration dates between state driver’s licenses and federal work authorization records," the release continued.
The coalition goes on to say that California state officials communicated to the press that non-domiciled CDL issuance would resume on December 17, but despite "these public assurances, the state has neither reissued any of the contested licenses nor created a process to remedy the date issue with no indication that it plans to do so before January 5.
"The California drivers facing license cancellations comply with a host of federal and state regulations, including regular renewals of their licenses and work authorization allowed under immigration law," the coalition continued.
Munmeeth Kaur, legal director of the Sikh Coalition, characterized the problems with California's non-domiciled CDL issuance as "clerical errors" of the California DMV's "own making."
Kaur added that "if the court does not issue a stay, we will see a devastating wave of unemployment that harms individual families, as well as the destabilization of supply chains on which we all rely.”
DOT characterized California's non-domiciled CDL issuance problems in a detailed letter to the state, and found "systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors in California’s issuance of non-domiciled" CDLs.
California is currently suing DOT over the federal agency finding it in noncompliance with federal regulations, as the state refuses to enforce English language proficiency regs and doesn't agree with DOT on licensing procedures.
[Related: Non-domiciled CDL drivers say DOT's new rule violates their civil rights]
