A Manhattan federal judge will hold a hearing over whether to freeze the hotly contested congestion pricing plan — just two weeks before the first-in-the-nation toll is set to take effect.
Judge Lewis Liman said Thursday that he’ll rule on whether to stop New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Jan. 5 rollout of the plan — after hearing from its opponents and defenders on Dec. 20.
But first, the Trucking Association of New York, United Federation of Teachers and the interest group New Yorkers Against Congestion Pricing all have until Nov. 29 to make their case for a “preliminary injunction” that would temporarily stop the plan, the judge said.
Those groups argue that the toll on cars entering Manhattan below 60th Street — which would start at $9, jump to $12 by 2028 and spike to $15 after 2031 — is unconstitutional, court papers say.
The toll’s backers, including the city, state and Metropolitan Transportation Authority, have until Dec. 2 to file their own court papers arguing to keep the plan intact.
All of the parties involved are then due back in court to slug it out at a hearing Dec. 20 at 2 p.m.
The Manhattan federal cases are only part of a sea of pending litigation that could scuttle the plan, which was first approved by state lawmakers and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019.
In New Jersey, Newark federal Judge Leo Gordon is currently weighing whether to order the toll paused based on Garden State officials arguing that it was pressed through without proper environmental review.
Hochul announced in June that the plan was “paused,” before reviving it again barely a week after November’s elections, where New York Democrats scooped up several seats in the US House of Representatives.