FMCSA Lawsuit Over Non-Domiciled CDLs: Claims, Stays, and Appeals

The FMCSA lawsuit over non-domiciled CDLs, Rivera Lujan v. FMCSA, is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The court blocked the agency’s original interim rule in November 2025, but in May 2026 it declined to halt the FMCSA’s replacement final rule while the case proceeds. That rule is now being enforced. Petitioners’ opening briefs were filed on June 15, 2026, and oral argument is scheduled for September 2026.¹

What the Rule Being Challenged Does

A non-domiciled CDL is a commercial driver’s license issued to people who are authorized to work in the United States but do not live here permanently. Before the FMCSA acted, a wide range of work-authorized immigrants could obtain one, including asylum seekers, refugees, DACA recipients, and holders of Temporary Protected Status.

The rule, first published as an interim final rule on September 29, 2025, and then re-issued as a final rule on February 11, 2026, restricts eligibility to three visa categories: H-2A agricultural workers, H-2B non-agricultural workers, and E-2 treaty investors. Licenses cannot exceed one year or the driver’s period of authorized stay, whichever is shorter. States must verify status through the federal SAVE database, and the credential must display the word “non-domiciled” prominently.²³

The FMCSA estimates the rule makes roughly 97% of about 200,000 existing non-domiciled CDL holders ineligible over five years. Current license holders can keep driving until their credentials expire, but cannot renew.⁴

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy framed the rule as an emergency safety measure, citing 17 fatal crashes in 2025 involving non-domiciled CDL holders and federal audits showing high error rates in state licensing files.⁵ Petitioners counter that the agency’s own data show non-domiciled drivers made up roughly 5% of CDL holders but only 0.2% of fatal crashes.⁶

Who Filed the Lawsuit

Public Citizen Litigation Group filed the petition for review on October 20, 2025, in the D.C. Circuit. The four petitioners are Jorge Rivera Lujan, a DACA recipient; Aleksei Semenovskii, an asylum seeker; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The unions joined because many members hold non-domiciled CDLs and depend on them for jobs in public transit, school transportation, and sanitation.⁷⁸

King County, Washington filed a separate petition, arguing the rule would push local governments to replace experienced immigrant drivers with less-experienced ones and that the FMCSA’s mandate covers driver fitness, not immigration enforcement. The cases were consolidated under docket numbers 25-1215 and 25-1224.⁹

The Legal Claims

The petition attacks the rule on procedural and substantive grounds:

The FMCSA skipped mandatory consultation with states required by 49 U.S.C. § 31308.
The agency bypassed notice-and-comment rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act by invoking a “good cause” emergency exception that petitioners say the agency’s own crash data does not support.
The rule is arbitrary and capricious because it targets the lowest-risk group of CDL holders and ignores the disruption to current license holders.
King County added that the FMCSA exceeded its statutory authority, arguing the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act concerns driver fitness, not immigration status.

¹⁰

Round One: The Stay of the Interim Rule

On November 13, 2025, a three-judge panel of Judges Henderson, Wilkins, and Pan stayed the interim final rule pending review. The majority found petitioners likely to succeed on at least three claims. On state consultation, the panel called the FMCSA’s reasoning “plainly flawed” because the statute has no exception for skipping it. On good cause, the court noted the agency’s own crash data undermined its emergency claim. And on the arbitrary-and-capricious challenge, the court pointed out that the FMCSA acknowledged the rule would replace experienced drivers with less-experienced ones without explaining how that produced a net safety benefit. “There is no public interest in the perpetuation of unlawful agency action,” the majority wrote.⁶

Judge Henderson dissented, arguing expedited review, not a stay, was the right remedy and that the agency was acting within its authority.

Round Two: The Final Rule and the Denied Stay

With the interim rule blocked, the FMCSA repackaged it. The February 11, 2026 final rule is substantively the same but was preceded by state consultation and notice-and-comment proceedings that drew more than 33,000 comments, roughly 87% opposed. It took effect March 16, 2026.³

Petitioners filed a new challenge, docketed as No. 26-1032 and consolidated with 26-1046. The original case was held in abeyance. On May 5, 2026, a different panel result emerged: Judges Katsas and Rao voted to deny the emergency stay, finding petitioners had not shown a strong likelihood of success. The majority distinguished the final rule from the interim version because the FMCSA had now consulted with states, gone through notice-and-comment, and provided a more detailed safety rationale. The court accepted the agency’s argument that because states cannot independently verify foreign driving records, limiting eligibility to visa categories subject to enhanced federal vetting was a reasonable proxy for the background checks applied to domestic applicants.¹¹

On DACA recipients specifically, Katsas and Rao held that using Employment Authorization Documents created “substantial administrability and compliance problems” because state clerks frequently confused DACA codes with other immigration categories. They also noted that most DACA beneficiaries are from Mexico, which already makes them ineligible for non-domiciled CDLs under separate regulations. Judge Wilkins dissented and would have granted the stay.¹²

What Happens Next

The same order that denied the stay granted expedited review of the merits. Petitioners’ opening briefs were filed on June 15, 2026, with the government’s response due July 15, 2026, and oral argument set for September 2026. Until the court rules on the merits, the final rule remains in effect.¹¹¹

What Drivers Are Seeing on the Ground

Because the rule is enforceable while the appeal proceeds, drivers are already losing licenses. California’s DMV cancelled roughly 13,000 non-domiciled CDLs in March 2026 after the FMCSA ordered the state to remove noncompliant licenses and threatened to withhold about $160 million in highway funds.¹³ In April 2026, the FMCSA withheld $73,502,543 from New York and warned that continued noncompliance could roughly double that penalty in fiscal year 2028.¹⁴

The DOT has issued compliance orders to at least eight states, including Illinois, Utah, North Carolina, California, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. Nevada is phasing out non-domiciled CDLs entirely, and several states paused processing while under federal review.¹⁵ A separate lawsuit by 19 non-domiciled CDL holders in the Southern District of Florida challenges a Compliance Assurance Plan the FMCSA imposed on Florida’s licensing agency.¹⁶ The D.C. Circuit’s decision after September’s argument will determine whether the federal framework driving all of these state actions survives.

1
CourtListener. Jorge Lujan v. FMCSA
2
FMCSA. Non-Domiciled CDL 2026 Final Rule FAQs
3
Federal Register. Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Drivers Licenses
4
FreightWaves. The Non-Domiciled CDL Crackdown Has Arrived
5
U.S. Department of Transportation. Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Takes Emergency Action to Protect America’s Roads
6
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Rivera Lujan v. FMCSA, Order Granting Stay
7
Public Citizen. Rivera Lujan v. FMCSA
8
AFSCME. Lawsuit Challenges Punitive Trump Regulation Targeting the Livelihood of Immigrants
9
Overdrive Online. Government Response to Stay Motions
10
Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Lujan v. FMCSA
11
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Rivera Lujan v. FMCSA, Order Denying Stay
12
Landline Media. D.C. Circuit Denies Emergency Motion Over Non-Domiciled CDL Rule
13
FreightWaves. California Digs In on Non-Domiciled CDL Cancellations
14
U.S. Department of Transportation. Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Withholds $73 Million From New York
15
Overdrive Online. Trump Administration Ends Nondomiciled CDLs: What Drivers Need to Know
16
CDL Life. Nineteen Non-Domiciled CDL Drivers File Lawsuit Accusing FMCSA and Florida