The Supreme Court must end the legal chaos threatening freight brokers

By Matthew Leffler, The Armchair Attorney®

A freight broker arranging a shipment must now consider not only the federal carrier registration system, but also whether a jury in Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, or California might retroactively decide the broker “should have known” a crash might occur. (Photo: Shutterstock)

(The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of FreightWaves or its affiliates.)

Imagine a world where a freight broker is liable in one state for hiring a federally authorized motor carrier, but shielded from liability in the next. That’s not a hypothetical—it’s the fractured legal landscape facing America’s logistics industry today. The Supreme Court of the United States must act now to resolve a widening circuit split over whether the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) preempts state common-law negligent hiring claims against freight brokers. And now they have the perfect cases to do it: Montgomery v. C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. out of the 7th Circuitand Cox v. Total Quality Logistics out of the 6th Circuit.

The FAAAA and the Circuit Split

At issue is the interpretation of the FAAAA’s preemption clause—specifically, whether the so-called “safety exception” allows states to regulate broker hiring through tort litigation. Freight brokers like C.H. Robinson and Total Quality Logistics have been caught in the crosshairs of diverging judicial opinions, creating a patchwork of legal exposure that undermines the efficiency and predictability of interstate commerce.

In Cox v. Total Quality Logistics, decided just days ago, the Sixth Circuit sided with the Ninth Circuit’s controversial Miller v. C.H. Robinson decision, holding that a state common-law negligent hiring claim falls within the FAAAA’s safety exception. This directly contradicts decisions from the Seventh (Ye v. GlobalTranz) and Eleventh (Aspen American Insurance Co. v. Landstar) Circuits, which correctly held that such claims are preempted because they interfere with the core services of brokers and are not “with respect to motor vehicles” in the sense Congress intended. And now, a pending Supreme Court petition in Montgomery v. C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. out of the 7th Circuit could (and should) resolve the matter.  

Why the Supreme Court Must Act

Let’s be clear: this is not a minor quibble over statutory language—it’s a fundamental disagreement that places freight brokers in legal limbo. The circuits agree that these negligent hiring claims “relate to” broker services under § 14501(c)(1) of the FAAAA and thus fall within the law’s express preemptive scope. The sole disagreement is over whether the savings clause—the safety exception in § 14501(c)(2)(A)—resurrects these claims by classifying them as legitimate exercises of a state’s motor vehicle safety authority.

But this interpretation stretches the safety exception beyond its breaking point. The phrase “with respect to motor vehicles” should, as the Seventh and Eleventh Circuits have rightly found, refer to laws that directly regulate motor vehicle operation and safety—not to state tort doctrines that second-guess a broker’s business judgment in hiring federally authorized carriers. Freight brokers don’t own or operate motor vehicles. They don’t hire drivers. They arrange transportation. When courts allow states to impose their own de facto hiring standards through negligence claims, they undercut Congress’s goal of uniform, deregulated transportation services.

Restoring Uniformity and Protecting Interstate Commerce

The consequences are dire. A freight broker arranging a shipment must now consider not only the federal carrier registration system, but also whether a jury in Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, or California might retroactively decide the broker “should have known” a crash might occur. That is not safety regulation—it’s chaos. What’s worse, this balkanization is happening in the most critical artery of our economy. More than 70% of freight in the U.S. moves by truck. Brokers play an essential role in matching that freight to motor carriers. If brokers are held liable for trusting a federally authorized carrier—they will retreat from the market, reduce options for shippers, and increase costs for consumers.

Congress saw this coming. That’s why it passed the FAAAA in the first place. And it’s why the Supreme Court must act now.

Twice the Court has denied certiorari—first in Miller, then in Ye. But the issue has not gone away. It has gotten worse. The Sixth Circuit’s decision in Cox intensifies the conflict. The industry cannot live with uncertainty any longer. It’s time for the Supreme Court to do what only it can: resolve the split, restore uniformity, and reaffirm the preemptive purpose of the FAAAA. Our national supply chain depends on it.

Matthew Leffler is a transportation attorney, adjunct professor of law at Michigan State University College of Law, and the host of the Armchair Attorney® Podcast. He can be reached at matthew@armchairattorney.com 

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Note: FreightWaves occasionally publishes commentary from industry sources with expertise, information and opinion on current transportation topics. The opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of FreightWaves. Submissions to FreightWaves are subject to editing.