The Supreme Court and the White House Just Changed Everything for Freight Brokers, NVOCCs, Customs Brokers, Freight Forwarders, and Warehouse Operators

(The views expressed present are solely those of the writer and bash not needfully correspond the views of FreightWaves oregon its affiliates.)

On May 22, 2026, the United States Supreme Court handed down a unanimous determination successful Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that removed a ineligible shield freight brokers person relied connected for decades. Eleven days later, a White House Executive Order extended compliance obligations crossed the full logistics concatenation — targeting forced labor, misclassification, undervaluation, and amerciable transshipment with transgression enforcement authority.

These 2 events did not make caller problems. They exposed problems that already existed and handed plaintiffs' attorneys and national prosecutors the tools to enactment connected them.

The question each logistics relation should beryllium asking close present is not whether they are compliant. It is whether they tin beryllium it — cryptographically, astatine each handoff, successful existent time, successful a format that holds up successful national court.

The answer, for astir of the industry, is no.

The question is not whether you are compliant. It is whether you tin beryllium it — astatine each handoff, successful existent time, successful a format that holds up successful national court.

Here is what each entity benignant present faces and what the caller documentation modular really requires.

01  ·  FREIGHT BROKERS The preemption shield is gone. Reasonable attraction is present a forensic standard.

For 20 years, freight brokers operated down a national preemption shield. The Carmack Amendment and the FAAAA gave brokers a defensible statement that authorities negligent hiring claims did not use to them. Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II eliminated that statement unanimously.

The Court's holding is precise: authorities negligent bearer enactment claims against freight brokers are not preempted by national law. This means a plaintiff whose cargo was damaged, lost, oregon progressive successful an mishap tin present writer the freight broker straight for failing to workout tenable attraction successful selecting the carrier.

The captious connection is reasonable. The Court did not specify it. That explanation volition beryllium written successful discovery, deposition, and verdict implicit the adjacent 5 years. But the absorption is unmistakable: tenable attraction is moving toward a documentation standard, not an volition standard.

Checking a bearer erstwhile astatine onboarding is nary longer tenable care. A bearer who passes your FMCSA cheque astatine 9am tin person their authorization suspended by noon. You find retired erstwhile the assertion lands — and your onboarding grounds is the lone documentation you have.

What tenable attraction present requires for freight brokers: