The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's move to push nearly 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders out of truck driving work will be decided by a majority Democrat-appointed panel of judges.
The case heads to oral arguments on Sept. 15 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. That's when three judges will rule on the fate of FMCSA's most aggressive rulemaking in years.
The executive branch appoints federal judges and Congress confirms them, and ethical guidelines forbid judges from supporting political parties while on the bench.
Judges don't campaign or fundraise for political parties, with the expectation that they'll rule independently. Examples abound of judges thought of as very liberal or conservative returning decisions that even shock the president who appointed them.
That said, two of the judges who will decide on the merits of FMCSA's case for almost completely banning issuance of non-domiciled CDLs to non-citizens were appointed by President Barack Obama, and one was appointed by President Donald Trump.
September will also mark almost an entire year since FMCSA's efforts to ban non-domiciled CDLs began.
Here's a recap:
- Sept. 26, 2025: FMCSA issued an Interim Final Rule seeking to ban CDLs for non-citizens, aside from a few types of visa holders, citing safety and procedural concerns at state motor vehicle departments (DMVs) that issue licenses.
- Oct. 20: Owner-operator Jorge Rivera Lujan, backed by unions, sued FMCSA to stop the rule.
[Related: Meet the owner-op who stopped FMCSA's non-domiciled CDL purge]
- Nov. 10: Lujan's suit succeeded. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit blocked FMCSA's rulemaking.
- Feb. 11, 2026: FMCSA issued a new Final Rule seeking to ban the same non-domiciled drivers, this time dropping its safety rationale and instead focusing on DMV failures in parsing work authorizations.
- Feb. 27: Lujan sued FMCSA again, seeking to reverse the rule.
Overdrive covered Lujan's side's arguments attacking FMCSA's rulemaking. The petitioners largely seek to poke holes in the logic used to ban non-citizens from driving work, also presenting analysis showing non-citizen CDL holders are actually safer than U.S. citizen counterparts.
[Related: California says non-domiciled drivers are safer than U.S. citizens: Court filings]
While Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has repeatedly said the non-domiciled CDL ban is "not political," politics has certainly crept into the court cases.
Amicus briefs filed by states fell almost perfectly along party lines. So-called Blue states mostly backed Lujan, while Red states mostly backed FMCSA.
Now the case heads to the three-judge panel.
One of the judges, Robert L. Wilkins, ruled against FMCSA in Lujan's case challenging the previous iteration of the non-domiciled CDL ban.
Judge Wilkins was appointed to the federal appeals court in 2014 by President Obama, and previously was the lead plaintiff in a case that "inspired nationwide legislative and executive reform of police stop-and-search practices," according to his biography.
Judge Patricia A. Millett was appointed to the appeals court in 2013, also by Obama, and formerly clerked for a judge in the Ninth Circuit court, widely considered the most liberal in the U.S. She holds a second degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, according to her bio.
Gregory G. Katsas was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in 2017 by President Trump and previously clerked under SCOTUS Judge Clarence Thomas. Katsas has argued more than 75 appeals, according to his bio.
[Related: Non-domiciled CDLs: Legislation seeks more FMCSA oversight]
