Trump proclaimed himself to be NYC king, literally. Let’s review the case. 
Congestion Pricing Lives On
Please note Federal Judge Keeps Congestion Pricing Alive
On Tuesday, May 27, Judge Lewis J. Liman granted the Metropolitan Transportation Authority a temporary restraining order after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to pull funding if it did not terminate congestion pricing tolling. The order expires on June 9.
Liman’s order handcuffs the Trump administration’s ability to take punitive action against New York for not complying with orders to end the program. The MTA’s lawsuit is challenging Duffy’s Feb. 19 letter informing it that federal approval for congestion pricing had been revoked and to terminate it.
Hochul celebrated the win on social media, claiming, “Traffic is down, business is up and the cameras are staying on.”
Long Live the King
The lead image is from this White House tweep proclaiming “Long Live the King”.
Questions and Answers of the Day
Q: Is Judge Lewis J. Liman a rogue judge appointed by Biden or Obama?
A: No, Linman was appointed by Trump in 2019, obviously a great choice.
Q: Does congestion pricing make any economic sense?
A: The question is moot. It makes no difference where a law is ill-advised. All that matters is the legality of the law itself. For the record, I was against congestion pricing, but the Governor claims congestion is down. The economic impacts are interesting and debatable, but moot.
Q: What happened to state’s rights?
A: Trump believes he is king. The court disagrees and so do I.
The Court Ruling
Please consider METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, et al., Plaintiffs, -v SEAN DUFFY, et al. Defendants.
The ruling is 109 pages. You don’t have to read it all because I did. Here are the key points, emphasis mine.
- “Defendants have challenged Plaintiffs to a game of chicken.”
- “A preliminary injunction is intended to prohibit a defendant from undertaking actions the Court has determined is likely unlawful before those actions are taken.”
- “Plaintiffs have established a likelihood of success on the merits for their claims that Defendants acted arbitrarily and capriciously by purporting to terminate the VPPP agreement in the February 19 Letter“
- “Defendants are enjoined from taking any of the “compliance measures” set forth in the April 21, 2025 Letter including withholding federal funds, approvals, or authorizations from New York state or local agencies to enforce compliance with or implement (1) the February 19 Letter, (2) Defendants’ purported termination of the VPPP Agreement, or (3) Defendants’ purported termination of the Tolling Program.
What an excellent ruling. It boggles the mind why Trump would want to inject himself on the middle of these situations.
This was pretty much a slam dunk from the start.
Challenges beget more challenges, and every ruling that goes against Trump begs for more challenges.
Related Posts
May 10, 2025: Trump Threatens to Suspend Habeas Corpus on Grounds the US is Being Invaded
Trump orders the courts to do the “right thing”.
The US is not being invaded. And the courts have already ruled against Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
Trump’s threat is a blanket interpretation that everyone here illegally is an enemy invader.
No one should be cheering this.
May 24, 2025: Harvard Take Two, Who Should Be Responsible for Foreign Student Visas?
I was asked “Don’t you think there should be any checks to who we allow into the US?“
May 24, 2025: Trump’s Attacks on Law Firms Correctly Smacked Again by the Courts
Even if you adore [Trump/Biden], for whatever reason, you are a big problem if you refuse to criticize clear violations of the constitution no matter who is in the White House.
Many of Trump’s executive orders are so obviously ridiculous that I wonder if the courts now scrutinize his orders more carefully as a result.
“It boggles the mind why Trump would want to inject himself on the middle of these situations.”
It’s easy to understand Trump, he is mentally ill so most of his decisions make no sense to a sane person. All or most of his actions are driven by his mental illness, again not comprehensible to a sane person.
His Majesty, Trump I will not be deterred by something as trifling as a court decision. After all, Putin I is his role model.
Trump is turning out to be a major disappointment. Most of his ideas are unconstitutional or outright illegal. Why on earth doesn’t he get the input of some constitutional lawyers before shooting his big mouth off.
Why? You know the answer. Trump’s immeasurably large ego commands him to believe he is superior to everyone on everything. Will he ever admit being in the wrong? Think of one instance, can you? will he ever accept as legitimate a judge’s ruling against him? Has he? You know all of the answers, just open your mind.
Lol “turning out” as if any thinking person didn’t already realize all this by 2017!
Asking why Trump does anything has to be considered understanding the fact that he is mentally ill. Trump will never make sense to a sane person. Trump’s cult has a universal mental illness also, so they think everything he does is brilliant and when they can’t understand his actions they call it 3D chess. Just like when folks can’t understand why or how something happened they claim or blame GOD. It makes difficult questions easy for the masses and those that find rational thought painful.
It is now clear the Election of 2024 was The Full Employment For Lawyers & Judges Act. Trump is quite the friend of the the justice industry.
So what. Trump gonna Trump.
You misspelled “do what he can to destroy the USA”
I remember the good old days when shock jock Steve Dahl urged his fans to fling gold foil clad chocolate “coin” candy pieces into the Illinois Tollway collection baskets. If that happened today Pritzker would be out there himself collecting.
No Kings!
A Federal Court (3 judge panel) just struck down Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.
As I have said before, this is Trump’s escape route when his tariffs backfire on him. The courts will rule against him and he can claim that tariffs were working till the court stopped them.
Stocks to the moon. Glad I bought Nvidia at $105. It’s at $140+ today. If SCOTUS affirms then we’re back to the Biden juggernaut economy and Trump can pout and tantrum like his usual self.
Got profits?
Just checked it’s at 140.88, you’re making a killing.
Slightly off topic, but I laughed. Stockbrokers have taken to telling each other to TACO when hedging their bets on Trump’s market-altering trade policies – stood for ‘Trump Always Chickens Out.’
Is this not socialism?
US government to have control in Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel deal, Trump says
https://apnews.com/article/trump-us-steel-nippon-pittsburgh-34ce70dfee9f32cbebe4e13ea9af7ab7
“Q: What happened to state’s rights?”
A: They died on April 9, 1865. And again on April 8, 1913.
Congestion is down which means the air is cleaner which means less costs to treat asthma \ lung cancer which means New Yorkers will be outside more / jogging / walking so an overall health benefit. Why can’t you see that this is an economic positive?
NY doesn’t have a smog problem. That disappeared in the 70s with catalytic converters.
Rise of asthma / lung cancer not due to tail pipe emissions. Unless its left over lead in the environment from leaded gas in the 70s and prior.
Lots of asthmatics, my self included, a very sensitive to ground level ozone. Ground level ozone isn’t naturally occurring like atmopheric ozon is.
I believe you as I know a couple of asthmatics.
What I said was emissions don’t cause asthma / lung cancer. You got those conditions from something else.
granted the Metropolitan Transportation Authority a temporary restraining order…….TRO is very very easy to get with a friendly judge. So no this isn’t a ruling. give it the 7 days and lets see
Look at the case and the claims and the ruling.
Look at Trump interjecting himself into a state’s issue
It so stupid, Trump may not even appeal.
But a point has been made–it puts Democratic leaders at the fore of central planning in favor of those that can afford their pay-to-play scheme that restricts access to those that have resources—while they proclaim they are for the little guy. Reminds me of the HOV lanes where all citizens pay for the roads but only those elitist, highly compensated and connected folks can use it.
I understand it’s an overreach and was always going to be shot down but it does continue to line up who’s in favor of what.
Wait until the poison pill of a big beautiful bill gets positioned as democrats supporting a tax increase (thanks to Trump 45’s ill-advised expiration of the personal tax cut but the permanent corporate tax cut).
I’m getting tired of politicians abusing the citizens but hell, at this point we’re begging for more of it.
“Reminds me of the HOV lanes where all citizens pay for the roads but only those elitist, highly compensated and connected folks can use it.”
Dude, what?!?!
It’s the poor people who car pool because they don’t want to pay for gas and parking who use the HOV.
You are so disconnected from reality wrt that.
Those NYC tolls, a good argument is made that it’s a rich people rule. They pay it no matter the cost because of their convenience.
Didn’t Larry David pick up a prostitute to drive the HOV so he wouldn’t be late to a Dodgers game?
Does anyone trust judges these days?
Before asking such questions – Did you bother reading the ruling?
These are rogue courts, Trump is a rogue executive.
Well, trust in the US legal system is taking some hits. I really think that Trump is issuing executive orders which are obviously bogus in order to de-legitimize the judiciary in the eyes of his devoted followers. The danger in these actions is quite significant and will not result in good outcomes. A judiciary which appears politicized will surely lose power. I truly feel sympathy for Chief Justice Roberts. I would advise all inferior court judges to soberly consider their actions and look to the Supreme Court to stay the hand of the current executive branch rather than issue nationwide injunctions.
Hopefully, more judges will do what they were appointed to do and not politically driven like most things these days.