If that is the Bills argument they will lose. You can't be an independent contractor if your "employer" gives you specific times and places you need to work at.... say like "You Jills have to be at all of the football games, here's a schedule." - that alone would show they were employees and not contractors so if the Jills win the IRS/NYS Labor Dept. could eventually sue the Bills for all their back employment taxes owed since the inception of the Jills as a squad. There is no way to argue that they weren't required to be present at the football games, ect. so their gonna lose that fight unless the Jills lawyers are absolutely incompetent.
I for one want to see this settled and the Jills to come back to the games. The drum-line is cool and we can keep that too but football and cheerleaders go hand and hand, even at like Pop Warner games, and its a bit embarrassing not to have them as a NFL team.