( March 5, 2026, 2:29 PM EST) -- SAN FRANCISCO — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on March 4 affirmed a lower court’s denial of a motion by Uber Technologies Inc., its subsidiary Portier LLC and Maplebear Inc. (Instacart) for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the enforcement of a Seattle ordinance prohibiting “unwarranted” deactivations of app-based workers’ accounts, finding in part that the ordinance does not regulate speech that is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution....