Once again, the world sees that the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, formally known as the Southern District of New York, employs the best lawyers in the country. Thank you to assistant U.S. attorneys Dominika Tarczynska, David Farber and Christine Poscablo for their excellent 11-page letter explaining in full detail why congestion pricing is completely legal under federal law and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy’s efforts to cancel it will fail in court.
These are the government’s lawyers telling their client that he has no case in a letter meant for internal DOT use, but accidently filed on the public docket for the MTA’s lawsuit against Duffy pending in Manhattan federal court.
Duffy should listen to the lawyers, but instead the Trump Department of Justice has transferred the handling of the congestion price litigation from New York lawyers to some in D.C., blaming the SDNY for intentionally sabotaging the case in filing the letter where it could be seen by all.
There is nothing to sabotage because Duffy has no case. The MTA sued Duffy on Feb. 19, the day he tried to pull the plug, saying his action was “contrary to law, pretextual, procedurally arbitrary and capricious, and violated due process.” The SDNY lawyers say that the MTA is correct.
They should know, because until the arrival of Duffy following Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, they have been defending the U.S. government in support of congestion pricing from the time the first Manhattan case was launched by congestion pricing foes on Nov. 22, 2023. That and all the Manhattan cases (there are now six) have been overseen by Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Liman. And Liman has time and again upheld the legality of congestion pricing.
Trump’s DOJ has already ripped apart the premier federal prosecution office in America with its clumsy and transparent effort to impose a corrupt bargain on Mayor Adams to drop his criminal indictment in exchange for political help on immigration enforcement. This mistake in making public the congestion pricing letter will undoubtedly further pit Trump against SDNY. We hope SDNY, which has a long history of upholding fairness and the law, prevails.
The analysis of the lawyers is flawless.
Duffy contends in a letter to Gov. Hochul that congestion pricing must allow a toll-free option and that the money raised must be for highways and cannot be used for transit. Wrong and wrong.
The lawyers say that there are “numerous examples” where the feds have approved such tolling programs and that “it is very unlikely that Judge Liman or further courts of review will uphold the secretary’s decision on the legal grounds articulated” in Duffy’s letter to Hochul.
Even using the federal budget to kill congestion pricing — Duffy’s only hope — is slim, as “there is no explicit ‘financial assistance’ provided” to the MTA by the feds when they granted approval. And, “the tolling agreement does not have any explicit termination provisions, which may make this argument more difficult.”
Duffy gave a March 21 deadline to turn off the cameras, and then an April 20 deadline, and now a May 21 deadline. We knew each deadline was meaningless words and now his own lawyers agree.
