The MTA is asking a federal judge to order the feds to keep the battle over congestion pricing in the courts — and not in the streets, as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has thrice threatened.
In the preliminary injunction filed late Monday night, the MTA asks that the judge bar Duffy from making good on his “patently unlawful” move to “avoid the judicial process,” and end the program through threats of “unlawful retribution” if the state fails to comply with his constantly-moving deadlines.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA CEO Janno Lieber ride the city’s subway on May 1, 2025. Matthew McDermott
“With no serious defense on the merits,” writes Roberta Kaplan, representing the MTA, “the Administration has now resorted to what seems to be its modus operandi: attempting to improperly leverage federal funding in order to coerce compliance with its wishes, rather than defend the legality of its propositions in court.”
The MTA says that a preliminary injunction is needed because, if Duffy were to make good on his “coercive” threats to withhold all sorts of federal transportation funding to the state, it “would have immediate and harmful implications.”
“The threatened measures will undeniably cause irreparable harm,” the MTA writes. “That is the point: Defendants acknowledge that they seek to coerce compliance with their lawless demands by threatening the funding of other public projects.”
“On the other hand, capitulating to Defendants’ demands would be just as devastating,” the MTA attorneys write, citing the loss of roughly $50 million in monthly revenue to support public transit.