California’s Test to Determine Employment Status Passes Review

California defeated an attempt by companies that help with political campaigns to stop the state from using its “ABC” test to determine if their workers are employees or independent contractors.

The ABC test, as applied to workers hired to go door-to-door to deliver political messages, has only an indirect impact on speech and, therefore, doesn’t violate the First Amendment, a divided US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said Tuesday.

Further, the law doesn’t discriminate against political speech by exempting workers like salespeople, newspaper distributors, and newspaper carriers, the majority said. The law regulates employers based on a worker’s ...