California Expected to Defy Federal Pressure, and Reissue 17,000 Non-Domiciled CDLs

[trumptman]

California Expected to Defy Federal Pressure, and Reissue 17,000 Non-Domiciled CDLs

California is expected to reissue approximately 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses it planned to revoke after federal enforcement pressure, setting up what may become the most significant federal-state confrontation over CDL authority in decades.

www.freightwaves.com

California is expected to begin reissuing approximately 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses that the state had planned to revoke following federal enforcement pressure. The decision comes despite ongoing corrective action requirements from FMCSA and raises fundamental questions about federal enforcement authority when a state openly defies compliance directives.


State transportation officials confirmed to sources that the Department of Motor Vehicles will begin restoring the contested licenses to immigrant drivers who received 60-day cancellation notices on November 6. The state has not clarified the specific process but points to the D.C. Circuit Court's November 13 emergency stay of FMCSA's interim final rule restricting non-domiciled CDL eligibility.


What California apparently misunderstands, or is choosing to ignore, is that the court stay addressed only the September 29 interim final rule. It did not address the separate compliance failures FMCSA documented during its 2025 Annual Program Review, which found that approximately 25% of California's non-domiciled CDLs were improperly issued under regulations that existed before the emergency rule was ever published.


The federal government threatened to withhold more than $150 million in highway funding from California over these pre-existing violations. Those threats remain fully in effect regardless of the court's stay of the new rule.

Never change California, never change.

Seriously what sort of insane reasoning is being used to justify restoring these licenses. There is the contention and stay on the one matter but we've now witnessed this play out across dozens of cases where the Democrat legal reasoning is..."but the President can't be the President...."

But as the article notes, these licenses were largely issued improperly even before the new "clarification".

Under 49 CFR 384.405, decertification prohibits a state from performing any CLP or CDL transactions. Even short of full decertification, FMCSA could issue guidance that CDLs issued by a noncompliant state during the noncompliance period are not valid for interstate commerce. Other states could refuse to recognize California's credentials. The Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS), which enables interstate verification, could flag California licenses.

The question isn't whether FMCSA has authority to act; 49 U.S.C. § 31312 is unambiguous. The question is whether the agency has the political will to exercise that authority against the nation's most populous state.

Do we really want to place bets about whether the Trump administration has the political will to exercise their authority in this area? I know where I would go all in on that bet,

 

[Blaster]

I hope the next big earthquake on the West Coast destroys that state.

 

[Manonthestreet]

Good when one of em kills again arrest Newsom as an accessory to the crimes

 

[Darkwind]

It stops when we start charging the politicians with accessory to the crimes being committed by these people.

 

[GMCGeneral]

Well well. Say buh bye to a shitload of federal funding for anything heading to Communistfornia.

 

[TheGreatSatan]

Giving CDLs to illegals who aren't qualified is treason.

This is another intentional democrat attack on Americans and America

Democrats = traitors