Massachusetts Justices Reject Uber-Backed Ballot Initiative (1)

A Massachusetts ballot initiative bankrolled by Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc., and DoorDash Inc. to cement their workers’ status as independent contractors will not move forward, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled.

The proposed ballot initiatives contain at least two “substantively distinct policy decisions, one of which is buried in obscure language at the end of the petitions,” the state justices said Tuesday in a unanimous decision. Attorney General Maura Healey’s (D) certification of the proposals for the ballot therefore was wrong, they said.

A coalition of worker advocates and drivers had challenged the certification of the ...