Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinions in Castellanos v. State of California and Quach v. California Commerce Club. (Briefs here; oral argument videos here and here.)
Castellanos is a biggie, concerning the validity of Proposition 22, the 2020 initiative — heavily financed by Uber and Lyft — that classifies app-based drivers as independent contractors instead of employees. The court limited the issue to: “Does Business and Professions Code section 7451, which was enacted by Proposition 22 (the ‘Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act’), conflict with article XIV, section 4 of the California Constitution [which gives the Legislature the ‘plenary power . . . to create, and enforce a complete system of workers’ compensation’] and therefore require that Proposition 22, by its own terms, be deemed invalid in its entirety?” (Links added.) The court granted review in June 2023. More about the case here, here, here, and here.
Quach is expected to decide whether California’s test for determining whether a party has waived its right to compel arbitration by engaging in litigation remains valid after the United States Supreme Court decision in Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. (2022) _ U.S. _ [142 S.Ct. 1708]. The court granted review in August 2022. More about the case here.
Castellanos and Quach will be the third and fourth decisions in the nine cases argued on the late-May calendar. They’re filing tomorrow even though they’re not due until August 19 and 29, respectively, and even though there are still four undecided cases from the early-May calendar with opinions expected by August 5.
Opinions in the remaining five late-May cases should file by August 19. Besides the four early-May cases, additional argued but undecided cases are the seven on the June calendar (opinions expected by August 29).
The Castellanos and Quach opinions can be viewed tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m.