Quinn v. LPL Financial LLC ( 2023 )


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  • Filed 5/10/23
    CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
    IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
    SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
    DIVISION EIGHT
    JOHN QUINN,                            B313414
    Plaintiff and Appellant,        Los Angeles County
    Super. Ct. No. 20STCV06589
    v.
    LPL FINANCIAL LLC,
    Defendant and Respondent.
    APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of
    Los Angeles County, David Sotelo, Judge. Affirmed.
    Clapp & Lauinger and James F. Clapp; Wynne Law Firm
    and Edward J. Wynne for Plaintiff and Appellant.
    Seyfarth Shaw, Jon D. Meer and Paul J. Leaf for Defendant
    and Respondent.
    ____________________
    As a matter of constitutional law, we uphold a statute that
    retroactively governs worker classification. Statutory citations
    are to the Labor Code.
    I
    Distinguishing between employees and independent
    contractors has been a challenge for a long time.
    In a 1944 case about Los Angeles “newsboys,” the Supreme
    Court of the United States reviewed the “long and tortuous
    history” behind a then-reigning test, which was notoriously
    uncertain in application. (Board v. Hearst Publications (1944)
    
    322 U.S. 111
    , 113, 120.) The Supreme Court bemoaned this
    uncertainty: “Few problems in the law have given greater
    variety of application and conflict in results than the cases
    arising in the borderland between what is clearly an employer-
    employee relationship and what is clearly one of independent,
    entrepreneurial dealing.” (Id. at p. 121, italics added.)
    The California Supreme Court also has struggled to map
    this borderland. Striving to mark precise boundaries, our high
    court has surveyed this terrain time and again. (E.g., Empire
    Star Mines Co. v. Cal. Employment Com. (1946) 
    28 Cal.2d 33
    ,
    43–46 [miners]; S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Dept. of Industrial
    Relations (1989) 
    48 Cal.3d 341
    , 349–360 (Borello) [cucumber
    harvesters]; Martinez v. Combs (2010) 
    49 Cal.4th 35
    , 49–77
    [strawberry workers]; Ayala v. Antelope Valley Newspapers, Inc.
    (2014) 
    59 Cal.4th 522
    , 530–540 [newspaper delivery].)
    These efforts were not conclusive.
    In 2018, the court tried again in Dynamex Operations West,
    Inc. v. Superior Court (2018) 
    4 Cal.5th 903
     (Dynamex).
    Today, Dynamex stands as governing law in some respects.
    In other ways, however, it merely intensified a whirlpool: the
    year it issued, Dynamex sparked varied responses, which are
    continuing. The dust has yet to settle completely.
    What was Dynamex?
    2
    Delivery drivers said they were employees of Dynamex,
    which had, they alleged, violated a state wage order governing
    their employment. Dynamex countered that the wage order did
    not apply because its drivers were independent contractors
    rather than employees. The court held, for claims arising under
    wage orders, a so-called ABC test would govern. The opinion
    limited its review to wage orders and expressed no view about
    other employment claims. (Dynamex, 
    supra,
     4 Cal.5th at pp. 916
    & fn. 5, 924–925, 942; see also 
    id.
     at pp. 925–926 & fns. 8–9, 952–
    953 [recounting origin, nature, and variety of wage orders].)
    Dynamex replaced one multifactor test with another. The
    new ABC test was that a worker would be considered an
    employee under the wage order unless the company satisfied
    factors the opinion identified as Part A, Part B, and Part C:
    hence, the ABC test. (Dynamex, 
    supra,
     4 Cal.5th at pp. 955–963.)
    The court was concerned employers were misclassifying
    employees as independent contractors. The court adopted the
    ABC test with the “basic objective” of securing at least minimal
    wages and “a subsistence standard of living” for workers. (Id. at
    pp. 913, 952, 955–957, 964.)
    Plaintiff John Quinn likes Dynamex’s ABC test and wants
    it to govern his case.
    The 2018 Dynamex decision was not the last word in this
    long-running conversation.
    That same year, legislators introduced a bill targeting
    Dynamex. This bill, known as Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), passed in
    2019 and took effect in 2020. (Stats. 2019, ch. 296 (2019-2020
    Reg. Sess.); Lab. Code, § 2775, subd. (b)(1); see American Society
    of Journalists and Authors, Inc. v. Bonta (9th Cir. 2021) 
    15 F.4th 954
    , 957–959 (American Society) [describing AB 5].)
    3
    AB 5 simultaneously codified, broadened, and narrowed
    Dynamex. It codified Dynamex by stating the ABC test in a
    statute. (See Stats. 2019, ch. 296, § 1(a) & (d).) The bill
    broadened Dynamex in two ways: by extending its reach beyond
    wage orders and by empowering prosecutors to enforce the rule.
    And it narrowed Dynamex by creating a range of exemptions to
    the ABC test. (See §§ 2775, subd. (b)(1), 2776–2784, 2786.) A
    different test, the “Borello test,” would govern the exceptions.
    (See §§ 2775, subd. (b)(3), 2783.)
    AB 5 did not settle everything, either. The Legislature
    returned to the field by enacting AB 170 (Stats. 2019, ch. 415,
    § 1) and then AB 2257 (Stats. 2020, ch. 38, § 2). Both statutes
    created new exemptions from the ABC test.
    Nor was the Legislature the only theater of action. On
    October 29, 2019, a group proposed Proposition 22, which took
    aim at an aspect of Dynamex and AB 5. In November 2020,
    voters approved Proposition 22 and thereby modified the
    landscape in various respects. (See Castellanos v. State of Cal.
    (2023) 
    89 Cal.App.5th 131
    , 142–145 (Castellanos) [describing
    Proposition 22].)
    There also were developments in the judicial arena.
    One California court enjoined the operation of Proposition
    22; a later, higher, and divided court reversed much of the
    injunction. (See Castellanos, supra, 89 Cal.App.5th at pp. 146–
    212.)
    A Ninth Circuit opinion upheld the constitutionality of
    AB 5, but a later Ninth Circuit decision went a different
    direction. (Compare American Society, supra, 15 F.4th at p. 966
    [“section 2778 permissibly subjects workers in different fields to
    different rules”] with Olson v. State of Cal. (9th Cir. 2023) 62
    
    4 F.4th 1206
    , 1219 (Olson) [“Plaintiffs plausibly alleged that A.B.
    5, as amended, violates the Equal Protection Clause for those
    engaged in app-based ride-hailing and delivery services”].)
    Quinn set sail on this stormy sea. In February 2020—after
    the enactment of AB 5 and the filing of Proposition 22 but before
    the effective date of AB 2257—Quinn filed suit against LPL
    Financial LLC under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA).
    Quinn and LPL stipulated to facts and sought summary
    adjudication of the fulcrum issue. The stipulated facts are
    concise, as follows (omitting paragraphs and related lettering):
    “[The new statute] codified and clarified the ‘ABC Test’ for
    independent contractor classification adopted in Dynamex [ ].
    [The statute] also included multiple exemptions to the ‘ABC
    Test,’ including, but not limited to, an exemption for ‘securities
    broker-dealer[s] or investment adviser[s] or their agents and
    representatives that are registered with the Securities and
    Exchange Commission or the Financial Industry Regulatory
    Authority.’ [Citation.] For those occupations, [the new statute]
    rejects the ‘ABC Test’ in favor of the ‘Common Law Control Test’
    set forth in [Borello]. The legal requirements differ for
    determining independent contractor classification, depending on
    whether the facts are governed by the ‘ABC Test’ or the ‘Borello
    Test.’ LPL is a registered broker-dealer and registered
    investment adviser registered with Financial Industry
    Regulatory Authority, Inc. (‘FINRA’) and the Securities Exchange
    Commission. At all times relevant to this action, Quinn and all
    allegedly aggrieved individuals for purposes of this action (the
    ‘Financial Professionals’) were ‘securities broker-dealer[s] or
    investment adviser[s] or their agents and representatives that
    are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or
    5
    the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority[.]’ Thus, the
    Financial Professionals affiliated with LPL fall within the
    statutory exemption to the ‘ABC Test’.”
    There is one more stipulated fact: “The Parties agree that,
    on its face, Labor Code § 2750.3(i)(2) makes the exemption set
    forth in § 2750.3(b)(4) retroactive, such that it would cover the
    entire proposed PAGA period in this action. However, Quinn
    claims both of those sections are unconstitutional and thus
    unenforceable. LPL claims both of those sections are
    constitutional and thus enforceable.”
    The parties did not stipulate to the results of these two
    tests—the ABC test versus the Borello test. There is no
    stipulation Quinn is an employee under one test or an
    independent contractor under another. Rather the dispute is
    about how a court should make that determination. This
    controversy is over means, not ends. Whether Quinn was an
    employee or an independent contractor is, as yet, unknown.
    LPL moved for summary adjudication. The pertinent
    stipulated issues were whether the statutory exemption for
    securities broker-dealers and investment advisors, and its
    retroactive application, are constitutional. The trial court upheld
    the statute as constitutional. Quinn appealed.
    II
    The challenged provisions are constitutional.
    The pertinent statute is as follows. Section 2775 identifies
    Dynamex and Borello by case citations and states the ABC test
    shall govern the Labor Code. (§ 2775, subds. (a) & (b).) Section
    2783 states the holding in Dynamex does not apply to a list of
    defined occupations; instead, people in those occupations are
    governed by Borello. One of the defined exceptions is for
    6
    securities broker-dealers or investment advisers or their agents
    and representatives that are registered with the Securities and
    Exchange Commission or the Financial Industry Regulatory
    Authority. (§ 2783, subd. (d)(1).) Section 2785 makes this
    exemption retroactive. (§ 2785, subd. (b).)
    We independently review constitutional questions.
    A
    Equal protection is the ground for Quinn’s first challenge.
    He says the statute violates equal protection by applying the
    ABC test to others but not to him.
    We apply federal law. Neither party suggests state and
    federal law have different equal protection tests. It does appear,
    for this issue, that California state courts embrace the federal
    test. (Cf. Warden v. State Bar (1999) 
    21 Cal.4th 628
    , 648, fn. 12
    (Warden) [“under both the federal and state equal protection
    clauses, the rational relationship test remains a restrained,
    deferential standard”]; see also People v. Chatman (2018)
    
    4 Cal.5th 277
    , 287, 288; Conservatorship of Eric B. (2022) 
    12 Cal.5th 1085
    , 1113 [when urged to use California’s state equal
    protection clause “to articulate a unique set of state law specific
    principles, we’ve declined”] (conc. opn. of Kruger, J.).)
    Quinn’s challenge requires a return to basics.
    Reigning equal protection analysis remains, in significant
    measure, a reaction to the universally-acknowledged
    constitutional error in Lochner v. New York (1905) 
    198 U.S. 45
    (Lochner). Indeed, “[t]he spectre of Lochner has loomed over
    most important constitutional decisions, whether they uphold or
    invalidate governmental practices.” (Sunstein, Lochner’s Legacy
    (1987) 87 Colum. L.Rev. 873, 873.)
    What, exactly, was the hated Lochner—this candidate for
    7
    “the most widely reviled decision of the last hundred years”?
    (Strauss, Why Was Lochner Wrong? (2003) 70 U.Chi. L.Rev. 373,
    373, see also 
    ibid.
     [“Lochner is one of the great anti-precedents of
    the twentieth century. You have to reject Lochner if you want to
    be in the mainstream of American constitutional law today.”].)
    Lochner overturned, on federal constitutional grounds, a
    state regulation capping bakers’ work weeks at 60 hours. The
    Lochner majority posed the question this way: “Is this a fair,
    reasonable, and appropriate exercise of the police power of the
    state, or is it an unreasonable, unnecessary, and arbitrary
    interference with the right of the individual to his personal
    liberty, or to enter into those contracts in relation to labor which
    may seem to him appropriate or necessary for the support of
    himself and his family?” The Lochner majority ruled the 60-hour
    cap was the latter and struck it down. (Lochner, supra, 198 U.S.
    at pp. 46–52, 56, 64.)
    In a timeless dissent, Justice Holmes wrote:
    “This case is decided upon an economic theory which a
    large part of the country does not entertain. If it were a question
    whether I agreed with that theory, I should desire to study it
    further and long before making up my mind. But I do not
    conceive that to be my duty, because I strongly believe that my
    agreement or disagreement has nothing to do with the right of a
    majority to embody their opinions in law. It is settled by various
    decisions of this court that state constitutions and state laws may
    regulate life in many ways which we as legislators might think as
    injudicious, or if you like as tyrannical, as this, and which,
    equally with this, interfere with the liberty to contract. . . . Some
    of these laws embody convictions or prejudices which judges are
    likely to share. Some may not. But a Constitution is not
    8
    intended to embody a particular economic theory, whether of
    paternalism and the organic relation of the citizen to the state or
    of laissez faire. It is made for people of fundamentally differing
    views, and the accident of our finding certain opinions natural
    and familiar, or novel, and even shocking, ought not to conclude
    our judgment upon the question whether statutes embodying
    them conflict with the Constitution of the United States.”
    (Lochner, 
    supra,
     198 U.S. at pp. 75–76 (dis. opn. of Holmes, J.).)
    Future Supreme Courts resoundingly agreed with Holmes.
    Praising him, a later Supreme Court wrote, “it is up to
    legislatures, not courts, to decide on the wisdom and utility of
    legislation. There was a time when the Due Process Clause was
    used by this Court to strike down laws which were thought
    unreasonable, that is, unwise or incompatible with some
    particular economic or social philosophy. . . . This intrusion by
    the judiciary into the realm of legislative value judgments was
    strongly objected to at the time, particularly by Mr. Justice
    Holmes . . . . The doctrine that prevailed in Lochner . . . and like
    cases—that due process authorizes courts to hold laws
    unconstitutional when they believe the legislature has acted
    unwisely—has long since been discarded. We have returned to
    the original constitutional proposition that courts do not
    substitute their social and economic beliefs for the judgment of
    legislative bodies, who are elected to pass laws. As this Court
    stated in a unanimous opinion in 1941, ‘We are not concerned . . .
    with the wisdom, need, or appropriateness of the legislation.’
    [Citation.] Legislative bodies have broad scope to experiment
    with economic problems, and this Court does not sit to subject
    the state to an intolerable supervision hostile to the basic
    principles of our government and wholly beyond the protection
    9
    which the general clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was
    intended to secure. . . . Nor is the statute’s exception . . . a denial
    of equal protection . . . .” (Ferguson v. Skrupa (1963) 
    372 U.S. 726
    , 729–732, internal quotation marks and citations omitted
    (Skrupa); see also Williamson v. Lee Optical (1955) 
    348 U.S. 483
    ,
    488 (Williamson); Dandridge v. Williams (1970) 
    397 U.S. 471
    ,
    484.)
    This renunciation of Lochner endured. (E.g., Santa Monica
    Beach, Ltd. v. Superior Ct. (1999) 
    19 Cal.4th 952
    , 970 [citing
    Skrupa]; Briggs v. Brown (2017) 
    3 Cal.5th 808
    , 828 [same].)
    Unless a suspect classification or some other basis triggers
    heightened scrutiny, modern equal protection analysis applies
    the rational basis test: “It is enough that there is an evil at hand
    for correction, and that it might be thought that the particular
    legislative measure was a rational way to correct it.”
    (Williamson, supra, 348 U.S. at p. 488.)
    “[A] statutory classification that neither proceeds along
    suspect lines nor infringes fundamental constitutional rights
    must be upheld against equal protection challenge if there is any
    reasonably conceivable state of facts that could provide a rational
    basis for the classification.” (Warden, 
    supra,
     21 Cal.4th at p. 644,
    italics added.) The constitutional inquiry ends if there are
    plausible reasons for the classification. (Ibid.)
    This law has a rational basis. “Financial professionals,” as
    Quinn’s stipulation described them, are professionals. A
    legislature rationally could believe professionals like Quinn, who
    ask people to trust them with wealth and finances, have more
    skill and bargaining power than the average worker, and
    therefore are less vulnerable to exploitation by misclassification
    as independent contractors. (Cf. Dynamex, supra, 4 Cal.5th at p.
    10
    952 [wage statutes are premised on the generalization workers
    have less bargaining power than employers]; see also Stats. 2019,
    ch. 296, § 1(c) & (e) [legislative findings showing AB 5, like
    Dynamex, aims to alleviate misclassification and exploitation].)
    Professionals with superior bargaining power may need
    less protection in the marketplace than others. A labor
    regulation treating financial professionals differently from others
    is rational.
    Quinn agrees the rational basis test governs, but he would
    apply it in a nondeferential way. This approach recapitulates the
    error of Lochner.
    For instance, Quinn argues all workers need the protection
    of the ABC test. This policy question is for the Legislature,
    which decided a different test should govern many professions.
    Quinn faults the legislation for failing to state the rational
    basis for the challenged exemption in its text or legislative
    history. This demand for a legislative recital is unfounded. Any
    reasonably conceivable rationale suffices. (Warden, 
    supra,
     21
    Cal.4th at pp. 641 & 644.)
    Quinn argues the statutory exemptions resulted from
    lobbying efforts. If this were the test, a supposedly deferential
    inquiry would doom much and possibly all legislation.
    Quinn maintains the registration aspect of the exemption
    creates a nonsensically narrow classification. He claims other
    licensed workers in the financial world fall outside of the
    exemption because they are unregistered with the Securities and
    Exchange Commission or the Financial Industry Regulatory
    Authority and therefore operate under the ABC test. In one
    sentence of his opening brief, Quinn lists loan officers, certified
    financial planners, financial examiners, market research
    11
    analysts, and chartered wealth managers. He suggests these
    licensed financial workers are interchangeable for purposes of
    the statute, but only registered financial workers like him are
    exempted from the ABC test, and this discrimination deprives
    him of equal protection.
    Quinn’s attack is not deferential. Legislation may
    recognize different categories of people within a larger
    classification who present varying degrees of risk of harm, and
    properly may limit a regulation to those classes for whom the
    need for regulation is thought to be more important. (Warden,
    supra, 21 Cal.4th at p. 644.)
    “Evils in the same field may be of different dimensions and
    proportions, requiring different remedies. Or so the legislature
    may think. [Citation.] Or the reform may take one step at a
    time, addressing itself to the phase of the problem which seems
    most acute to the legislative mind.” (Williamson, 
    supra,
     348 U.S.
    at p. 489.)
    Defining classes of people subject to legal requirements
    inevitably places those with almost equally strong claims on the
    other side of the line. Whether the line could or should have been
    drawn differently is a matter for legislative, not judicial,
    consideration. (Warden, 
    supra,
     21 Cal.4th at p. 645.) Problems
    of government may justify or require rough accommodations, and
    even illogical and unscientific ones. (Kasler v. Lockyer (2000) 
    23 Cal.4th 472
    , 487.)
    In another thrust, Quinn faults the trial court for offering
    no evidence to support its analysis. Again, this misunderstands
    the deference of rational-basis review. A legislative choice is not
    subject to courtroom factfinding and may be based on rational
    speculation unsupported by empirical data. (Warden, supra, 21
    12
    Cal.4th at p. 650.)
    In short, the trial court was right to defend this statute
    against Quinn’s equal protection attack.
    In so holding, we join with Whitlach v. Premier Valley Inc.
    (2022) 
    86 Cal.App.5th 673
    , 706–708, which concerned real estate
    agents, and American Society, supra, 15 F.4th at pages 964–966,
    which involved freelance writers and photographers. These
    equal protection analyses support our holding.
    A different recent decision, Olson, has no application here.
    The Olson decision seemed to make one legislator’s statement a
    basis for doubting a law. (See Olson, supra, 64 F.4th at pp.
    1219–1220.) For support, Olson cited U.S. Department of
    Agriculture v. Moreno (1973) 
    413 U.S. 528
    , 534 & 538, which
    invalidated a food stamp exemption designed to cut off aid to
    “hippies” and “hippie communes.” (Id. at p. 534.) That
    legislation was unconstitutional because it was “wholly without
    any rational basis.” (Id. at p. 538.) Quinn’s case is different: it is
    rational to think people licensed to work as financial
    professionals by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the
    Financial Industry Regulatory Authority have more skill and
    bargaining power than the average worker and do not need a
    new classification test.
    In sum, this statute does not violate equal protection.
    B
    Due process is the basis for Quinn’s second challenge.
    Quinn argues the 2019 legislation, by making the challenged
    exemption retroactive, violated his right to due process because
    its retroactivity deprived him of a vested right.
    Recall the pertinent exemption specifies the key
    determination for these financial professionals shall be governed
    13
    by the Borello test rather than the ABC test. The statute makes
    this rule retroactive. Quinn says this retroactivity is
    unconstitutional.
    Quinn’s opening brief cites no precedent giving him a
    “vested right” to a particular legal test or presumption. Courts
    and legislatures routinely change or modify legal tests. For
    courts, this is the method of the common law: continual and
    incremental legal adjustments to newly-encountered fact
    patterns—adjustments that then stand as precedents for the
    future. Absent precedent, Quinn’s challenge lacks an
    authoritative footing. (Cf. Graczyk v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals
    Bd. (1986) 
    184 Cal.App.3d 997
    , 1006 [“[A]pplicant’s inchoate
    right to benefits under the workers’ compensation law is wholly
    statutory and had not been reduced to final judgment before the
    Legislature’s [later statute] . . . clarifying the employee status of
    athletes. Hence, applicant did not have a vested right, and his
    constitutional objection has no bearing on the issue.”].)
    The decisions Quinn does cite do not cover his situation.
    Roberts v. Wehmeyer (1923) 
    191 Cal. 601
    , 603 concerned vested
    rights to an interest in a house. In re Marriage of Bouquet (1976)
    
    16 Cal.3d 583
    , 586 and footnotes 1 and 2 (Bouquet) concerned
    vested rights to “earnings and accumulations.” In re Marriage of
    Buol (1985) 
    39 Cal.3d 751
    , 755, 757 (Buol) was about vested
    rights to a house held as separate property.
    None of these cases is authority for a constitutionally
    vested right in anything as ephemeral as a legal test or
    presumption.
    Even less helpful to Quinn is his citation of Campbell v.
    Holt (1885) 
    115 U.S. 620
    , 628 [“We certainly do not understand
    that a right to defeat a just debt by the statute of limitations is a
    14
    vested right, so as to be beyond legislative power in a proper
    case.”].
    Quinn claims he gained vested rights as an employee at the
    time he worked for LPL, particularly the right to employer
    reimbursement of his business expenses. This claim begs the
    question: was Quinn an employee or an independent contractor?
    No legal test—Borello or ABC or some other—has determined
    Quinn’s status. The trial court never made this determination.
    Quinn’s briefs do not ask us to undertake this analysis, and we
    do not. Whether Quinn had rights as an employee depends on
    whether he was an employee, and that question remains open.
    Other cases Quinn cites do not engage constitutional law at
    all. Cortez v. Purolator (2000) 
    23 Cal.4th 163
    , 173–178 (Cortez)
    held that unlawfully withheld wages may be recovered as
    restitution in cases arising under California’s unfair competition
    statutes. Quinn’s case does not involve these statutes. Cortez, in
    passing, did cite Loehr v. Ventura County Community College
    District (1983) 
    147 Cal.App.3d 1071
    , 1080 (Loehr) and in a
    parenthetical description of that case quoted a sentence from it
    describing earned wages as “vested” rights. (Cortez, 
    supra,
     23
    Cal.4th. at p. 178.) But the word “vested” assumes different
    meanings in different contexts. (Bouquet, supra, 16 Cal.3d at p.
    591 fn. 7.) Neither Cortez nor Loehr dealt with constitutional
    law.
    Given this absence of binding constitutional authority, we
    do not extend constitutional doctrine to cover Quinn’s case.
    Two reasons counsel special caution.
    First, Quinn gives us no constitutional logic supporting his
    proposal to invade legislative authority. Why should Quinn be
    able to freeze a shifting legal landscape at a moment he selects
    15
    for personal tactical advantage? Generally speaking, the
    doctrine of “vested rights” protects certain “settled” expectations.
    (Tribe, American Constitutional Law (1978) pp. 456–457 & fn.
    10.) But objectively, Quinn’s fleeting expectations could not have
    counted as “settled” during this interval of rapid legal
    development. (Cf. California Trucking Assn. v. Su (9th Cir. 2018)
    
    903 F.3d 953
    , 959 fn. 4 [“Dynamex did not purport to replace the
    Borello standard in every instance where a worker must be
    classified as either an independent contractor or an employee for
    purposes of enforcing California’s labor protections.”].)
    Second, unlike the situation with equal protection law,
    there may be a large divergence between state and federal
    substantive due process doctrines. (Compare Buol, supra, 39
    Cal.3d at pp. 758–760 [no mention of rational basis test] with
    2 Rotunda and Nowak, Treatise on Constitutional Law-
    Substance and Procedure, (2022) § 15.9(a)(iv) [“The Supreme
    Court [of the United States], in a series of cases that spanned
    two-thirds of the twentieth century, established the principle
    that retroactive legislation will violate due process only if the
    legislation does not have a rational relationship to a legitimate
    government interest.” Italics added.]; cf. Note, The Variable
    Quality of a Vested Right (1925) 
    34 Yale L.J. 303
    , 309 [“But
    whatever theory be adopted, the difficulty that causes such a
    volume of disagreement . . . is the chameleon character of the
    term ‘property right’ or ‘vested right’: the fact that it is not an
    absolute standard, but a variant which each man, layman,
    legislator, and judge, determines individually out of his own
    background.”].)
    The parties do not identify a justification for this apparent
    doctrinal incongruity. We are not aware of a stated rationale for
    16
    the doctrinal divergence, if indeed there is one today.
    It is a grave thing for unelected judges to strike down the
    work of elected representatives. Earlier we quoted Holmes’s
    statement about the right of a majority to embody its opinions in
    law. Where no binding authority compels us, this
    countermajoritarian difficulty restrains us.
    These reasons lead us respectfully to decline to follow a
    federal opinion on which Quinn relies. (See Hall v. Cultural Care
    USA (N.D.Cal. July 22, 2022, 3:21-CV-00926-WHO) 
    2022 WL 2905353
    , at *4–*5, modified on reconsideration (Aug. 31, 2022),
    
    2022 WL 3974258
     (Hall).) The Hall decision cited Buol, Cortez,
    and Loehr as authority for declaring section 2785 a violation of
    due process. (Id. at p. *4.) We have explained how these cases do
    not support the result Quinn seeks.
    DISPOSITION
    We affirm the summary adjudication and resulting
    stipulated judgment. We award costs to LPL Financial LLC.
    WILEY, J.
    We concur:
    GRIMES, Acting P. J.
    VIRAMONTES, J.
    17