California’s non-domiciled CDL program could roar back to life
Two major lawsuits in federal court will be decided any day now. If FMCSA doesn't get its way, California may soon be able to...
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s ban on non-domiciled CDLs currently sits on a knife’s edge awaiting a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but another, related court case could bring non-domiciled CDL issuance roaring back in California.
Back in September 2025, when FMCSA first began to shut down non-domiciled CDL issuance for 97% of all non-citizens, the agency put California on special notice, finding substantial non-compliance within the state’s licensing.
By November 2025, the D.C. federal court had blocked FMCSA’s non-domiciled CDL ban rulemaking, but very few states came back around to actually issuing non-domiciled CDLs.
That’s because FMCSA put most of the states that wanted to issue non-domiciled CDLs -- California, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, and many more -- under special instructions not to. Those special instructions weren’t subject to the court's block on FMCSA’s broader rule in November.
This story was originally published by Overdrive. Read the full story at Overdrive →
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