AB 51, which restricts workplace arbitration, was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2020. On December 30, 2019, US District Judge Kimberly Mueller granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the legislation from taking effect. She did so in response to a lawsuit by the California Chamber of Commerce and other employer groups arguing that the legislation was unconstitutional. At a hearing on January 10, 2020, Judge Mueller extended the injunction until January 31, 2020 to allow further briefing and argument on the issues.

We’ve been following this issue closely. We wrote about the bill itself here, the pros and cons of workplace arbitration here, the various sides’ economic motives here, the filing of the lawsuit to block the measure here, and the granting of the earlier TRO here.

The state legislature passed similar measures repeatedly, most recently in 2018. But Governor Brown vetoed those prior bills because he deemed them unconstitutional. Now that constitutional battle is playing out in the courts. We’ll continue to provide updates.

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