Visnovec v. Yellow Freight

Visnovec v. Yellow Freight, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota (754 F. Supp. 142), Decided 1990

Decision: State and local governments may not attempt to regulate a motor carrier’s drug testing program when the motor carrier is also subject to U.S. Department of Transportation regulations.

Background: Yellow Freight discharged an employee who had tested positive for marijuana and then refused to provide him with an opportunity for a confirmatory retest or rehabilitation, as required under Minnesota’s drug testing law. Although Yellow Freight’s action was consistent with its collective bargaining agreement, Minnesota’s law provided a retest option and required that employees be given an opportunity for rehabilitation after a positive test result, thus forming the basis for the employee’s lawsuit.

Court’s Opinion: Although a substantial portion of the court’s decision was devoted to the question of whether the employees’ claims were preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act, the final and perhaps most important aspect of it stemmed from its holding that Yellow Freight’s drug testing obligations under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations preempted the Minnesota drug testing law in its entirety.

Although it did so in just two sentences, the court found that the federal regulatory scheme reflected an intent by Congress to occupy the entire field of driver regulation to the extent of existing regulations. The court therefore found it unnecessary to address the question of whether Yellow Freight had violated any provisions of the Minnesota drug testing law.