Pegastaff

PegaStaff is an agency that provides temporary staffing for its clients. A large part of PegaStaff’s business was the provision of staffing to Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), through a staffing agency with which PG&E directly contracted, initially Corestaff Services, LP (Corestaff), and later Agile 1.

California’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) adopted “General Order 156” to implement Public Utilities Code 1 sections 8281 through 8286 (Article 5), 2 the purpose of which is to encourage and develop the use of women, minority and disabled veteran-owned business enterprises (WMDVBEs) within the public utility sector. PegaStaff is not a WMDVBE and after PG&E *378 adopted a program to increase the utilization of WMDVBEs, its provision of staff to PG&E was substantially reduced.

PegaStaff filed suit against the CPUC, PG&E, Corestaff and Agile 1. Its claims against the CPUC consisted of constitutional challenges to Article 5 and General Order 156. The trial court determined that it did not have subject matter jurisdiction to consider PegaStaff’s constitutional challenges, granted the CPUC’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, and entered judgment in favor of the…