California Freelancers Held to Worker Test, Ninth Circuit Says (2)

Freelance journalists and photographers can’t move forward with their claims that a rigid worker classification law stifles their First Amendment free speech rights, the Ninth Circuit said Wednesday.

The American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Press Photographers Association asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to strike down part of a 2019 state law known as Assembly Bill 5, which codified the three-part test to determine employee status.

A.B. 5 does have exceptions for freelancers, but those suing argued that a limit to the volume of worker-produced projects impairs their legal right to speak ...