A federal judge in California has thrown out a lawsuit directed at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s non-domiciled CDL rule.
On Tuesday, Feb. 24, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed the case without prejudice, finding that it failed to state a claim.
FMCSA issued an emergency final rule in September 2025 to address the non-domiciled CDL system in the United States. Saying that states were giving non-domiciled CDLs to “unvetted” and “unlawful” applicants, the agency determined it was necessary to drastically reduce eligibility. FMCSA’s rule would remove nearly 200,000 CDLs.
In November 2025, Jaswinder Pal Singh Sandhu, a refugee and truck driver, filed a civil complaint against FMCSA.
As part of the complaint, Sandhu said he learned to drive a truck and obtained his CDL, but that the FMCSA was going to take it away without any “advance notice.” Without being able to drive a truck, Sandhu asked in the complaint how he was expected to feed himself and his family.
The court then told Sandhu that his complaint did not establish the court’s jurisdiction and failed to state any cognizable claims.
Sandhu then filed an amended complaint, but on Feb. 24, the court ruled that none of the deficiencies had been remedied.
Other lawsuits
Although Sandhu’s case has been dismissed, there have been several other lawsuits filed over the non-domiciled CDL rule.
In October 2025, the Public Citizen Litigation Group, the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed a lawsuit against the rule. Rivera Lujan, the named plaintiff in the case, is a DACA recipient who would lose his CDL under the rule.
“This unlawful rule seems intended to put people authorized to work in the United States out of work, solely because of the prejudices of the Trump administration,” said Wendy Liu, attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group. “We are asking the court to promptly invalidate the rule to prevent devastating consequences for our clients and the hundreds of thousands of people across the country who depend on commercial driver’s licenses for their livelihoods.”
FMCSA’s emergency final rule, issued last September, took effect immediately. However, the court put the rule on hold and forced FMCSA to pause the effective date and go through the typical rulemaking procedure before it could issue a final rule.
After reviewing more than 8,000 public comments, FMCSA issued an updated rule earlier this month. On Feb. 12, the Public Citizen Litigation Group filed a petition for review to challenge the new final rule.
In a separate case filed in December 2025, the Sikh Coalition filed a class-action lawsuit against the California Department of Motor Vehicles on behalf of drivers who were scheduled to lose their CDLs.
In comments filed to FMCSA, the group said the interim final rule has had a “devastating impact” on Sikhs, as trucking is one of the most popular professions among the community. LL
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