Supreme Court Delivers Unanimous Win for Highway Safety

The ruling on freight broker liability will fix America's road safety problem better than any federal crackdown.

The Supreme Court handed down a rare unanimous decision on May 15 that could prove to be the most consequential highway safety ruling in history. In Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, the Court ruled 9-0 that freight brokers can be sued for negligently hiring dangerous carriers. Where federal regulators have struggled against state obstruction, sloppy licensing, and industry laziness, returning liability to the profit equation may now succeed in making American highways safe again—all because the Supreme Court affirmed a victim's right to hold the freight brokers accountable.

The Montgomery case arose from a 2017 crash on Illinois’ I-70. Shawn Montgomery lost a leg after he pulled over due to a mechanical issue and got rear-ended by a tractor-trailer whose driver veered off the road. The freight broker who arranged the shipment, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, had hired the carrier despite a federal "conditional" safety rating. That means the federal regulators had already flagged the trucking company for deficiencies in driver qualification, hours-of-service compliance, crash history, and other red flags.

Despite C.H. Robinson's pleas that federal law protected them, the Supreme Court ruled states can and should regulate vehicle safety—and negligent hiring of an unsafe carrier posed an undue risk on the public.

This ruling allows victims to hold companies responsible for unsafe hiring practices, forcing the industry to stop shielding itself from liability.

DOT Crackdown on States Who Value Immigrants over Safety

The United States remains the most dangerous high-income country in the world in which to drive, and that gap is only widening. While other high-income countries improved traffic safety in the past decade, American roads have become even less safe. Many factors contribute to America’s high traffic fatality rate, but unskilled truck operators have driven much of it. In 2022 alone, half a million truck accidents occurred in the U.S., causing around 5,000 deaths and 114,000 injuries.

This owes in large part to Democrat-run states turning a blind eye to commercial driver's licenses being issued to immigrants who do not meet federal qualifications.

The problem gained national attention through a series of fatal crashes last year, caused by illegal alien truck drivers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has waged a vigorous campaign to clean up the trucking industry. His Department of Transportation (DOT) began by reinforcing the longstanding English proficiency requirement that an Obama-era federal policy had neutralized. It also dismantled the “CDL mills” that had been churning out unqualified immigrant drivers. In the past year, the agency removed more than 6,800 such unqualified training providers from the federal registry.

In California, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found that more than a quarter of the state's non-domiciled commercial drivers’ licenses had been improperly issued—many with expiration dates that outlasted the drivers' lawful work authorization. The state initially resisted federal demands to revoke the licenses, but when the DOT withheld $160 million in federal highway funds California complied by rescinding 17,000 licenses.

New York acted similarly. A federal audit sampled 200 licenses and found over half were illegally issued. After the state resisted demands to decertify them, the DOT withheld $73.5 million. Unlike California, New York continues to fight this in court, which has prompted the DOT to threaten to withhold up to $147 million annually if it does not comply. 

The DOT’s enforcement crusade has paid off. Fatal truck and bus crashes fell 10 percent, from 4,431 in 2024 to 3,986 in 2025, thanks to more than 20,000 unsafe truckers being removed from American roads due to failure to meet basic requirements.

ONE YEAR of taking on the TRUCKING INDUSTRY! 🚚

✅ 20,000 drivers REMOVED for not meeting English-speaking standards
✅ 28,000 illegally issued licenses REVOKED nationwide
✅ 6,800 non-compliant training providers REMOVED from the @FMCSA registry

And we will not stop making… pic.twitter.com/lmQEPhHnIn

— U.S. Department of Transportation (@USDOT) May 1, 2026

These are all genuine achievements. But they have required expending political capital and waging legal battles against resistant states. Furthermore, their continuation depends entirely on whomever occupies the White House. The Montgomery decision neutralizes the ability of liberal states and negligent elements of the trucking industry to wait out President Donald Trump’s administration.

Montgomery Strengthens the Invisible Hand of Civil Liability

The Montgomery ruling demonstrates how civil liability disciplines industries quicker than government regulation when those industries can no longer hide behind the law to shield themselves from taking accountability. 

Brokerage firms do not fear government audits like they fear class-action lawsuits. The federal government can conduct audits and withhold highway funds. But even if the courts eventually give it the green light to strangle a recalcitrant state’s infrastructure, it’s no match for the thoroughness of self-regulation by the industry itself. 

Many brokers are already changing their business model by tightening their carrier qualification standards and refusing to work with carriers that have red flags like poor safety scores, histories of violations, or licensing problems. 

The US Supreme Court ruled that freight brokers could be held liable for carrier accidents just the other day.

It is already having an impact in the market. Trucking companies with a poor record for safety (usually hiring 3rd world drivers) are getting eliminated quickly. pic.twitter.com/Ak00NrtZ5N

— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) May 16, 2026

They understand that a single crash—coupled with evidence that they knew or should have known about a carrier's risks—can now ruin them.

Despite concern from some in the trucking industry, this does not create a license to shakedown brokers. In his concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh reassured the industry that brokers who act reasonably and select reputable carriers should be able to defend themselves against these types of suits. 

Duffy deserves credit for the progress his DOT has made. The 10 percent reduction in fatal truck crashes will improve if the federal government keeps its thumb on blue states that value immigrants’ job security more than citizens’ safety. But strict federal oversight only works as long as an America-First administration holds office and is willing to spend political capital to ensure that safety comes before profits and low prices. 

Civil liability is always a harsher and more efficient regulator than bureaucracy, when it’s allowed to act. The Montgomery decision embeds legal accountability into the trucking sector by putting self-regulation back into the profit equation. 

A strong, independent judiciary is vital to a functioning free market economy. In addition to upholding contract law and property rights, preventing rent-seeking behavior and liability shields by businesses of all types provides more safety than any amount of government regulation. Thanks to the Court’s unanimity, this ruling will protect the rights of all involved in the trucking industry—including the victims of negligent practices— regardless of who controls the DOT in the future. 

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