A Manhattan federal judge has blocked the federal government from ending congestion pricing before the end of an ongoing lawsuit — issuing a preliminary injunction against Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the U.S. Department of Transportation on Wednesday.
The order, issued by Judge Lewis Liman, comes one day after he issued a temporary restraining order in the case, blocking any such action for two weeks.
The injunction indefinitely prevents Duffy or his agency from acting on their claims that they can unilaterally revoke authorization toll — and blocks any of the so-called “compliance actions” Duffy has threatened — until Liman rules on the legality of USDOT’s efforts to end the congestion pricing program.
“For the avoidance of doubt, [Duffy and the USDOT] are enjoined from taking any of the
“compliance measures” … including withholding federal funds, approvals, or authorizations from New York state or local agencies to enforce compliance with or implement … [their] purported termination of the Tolling Program,” the 109-page order concludes.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the order was filed Paige Graves, MTA’s general counsel, said she hadn’t yet read the injunction in full.
“I have not looked at the details of his decision, but it’s positive news,” Graves said.
The congestion toll first began in January — a requirement of New York State’s 2019 Traffic Mobility Act, meant to both reduce congestion and back $15 billion in bonds toward specific MTA projects.
Duffy first claimed the authority to unilaterally end the toll weeks later, in February. When the MTA sued, Duffy gave Gov. Hochul a March 21 deadline to end the toll. Duffy then extended the deadline to April 20, then to May 21.
As the toll remained in place on May 21, Duffy — in a letter to Hochul — threatened to withhold federal funds for any highway project in Manhattan, refuse to approve Manhattan projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, and refuse to greenlight any funding amendments from the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council — unless Hochul ended the toll.
In issuing Tuesday’s restraining order, Liman said New York stood to suffer irreparable harms from the feds’ demands, including the “delay of numerous public works projects,” “harm to the bond market” and the “undermining [of] the authority of a sovereign state” that had democratically passed the law requiring the toll.
