The Federal District Court in Manhattan has just issued the final word in a long political battle: Congestion pricing in New York is here to stay.

New York City officially began implementing a congestion pricing program in January 2025. The program currently has drivers paying $9 to enter the busy area below 60th street in Manhattan during peak traffic times. The goal is for the toll to gradually increase to $15 by 2031, ultimately aiming to bring the city’s public transit system $1 billion annually.

Although the program was somewhat unpopular at first, subsequent polls showed that it was growing of New Yorkers and productive real benefits from a significant reduction in pollution and traffic in and out of the city to improve public safety and increase funding for public transportation projects. The analysis also shows that the program has yet to bring about the adverse economic effects that its critics claim are inevitable.

Trump expressed his disdain for congestion pricing and asked his Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy repeal federal approval when he takes office in January 2025.

In February 2025, Duffy sent a LETTERS to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York claiming that the program was a financial “burden” on passengers and exceeded the powers “authorized by Congress,” revoking the Federal Highway Agency’s approval.

After Duffy’s letter in February, Trump took to the Truth Social to celebrate.

“THE PRICE OF CONGESTION IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” the President said in a post.

The MTA quickly filed a lawsuit against the DOT’s decision. On Tuesday, federal Judge Lewis Liman ruled in favor of the MTA.

Liman said the DOT does not have the authority to dismantle a project established by a predecessor, which in this case is the Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP) signed into law by former President Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“The February letter is based on the conclusion that Congress did not give the Secretary the authority to approve the CBDTP. That conclusion is an error of law,” Judge Liman wrote in the decision. “The CBDTP is the product of a democratic process.”

The judge also concluded that Duffy’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious.”

“An unelected administrative agency may not make decisions affecting large segments of the public based on what is in the mind of the moment,” the judge wrote. “It should involve rational decision-making.”

“Congestion pricing is legal, it works, and it’s here to stay,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “I’ve been clear from day one: my administration will fight any unlawful effort by the Trump administration to attack the sovereignty of New York State with everything we have. Today, we’ve won again.”

The administration’s targeting of New York’s congestion pricing program is just the first in a series of attacks on public transit that the Democrat has mounted in New York since Trump took office.

The administration also cut tens of billions of dollars in funding to two key New York City infrastructure projects, the long-promised Second Avenue Subway and the Hudson Tunnel reconstruction project, on the grounds that both projects provide “DEI contracts.”

The Hudson Tunnel project is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the entire country, as it will solve bottlenecks and delays on the busiest part of the entire national passenger rail system. The Commission that directed the effort was successful nabbed the Trump administration last month, as funding and construction continued under court order.

Last week, the MTA threatened to sue the administration for refusing to release $58 million in funding for the Second Avenue Subway project.