Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to grant livery cabs the right to accept street hails was derailed on June 1, 2012, when New York State Judge Arthur Engoron invoked the home rule clause of the State constitution and enjoined the City from implementing the State law passed in 2011. The State law would have allowed 30,000 liveries to accept street hails, a right currently enjoyed only by yellow cabs. Advocates for the law claimed that the absence of yellow cabs from parts of the City would have been corrected by allowing licensed livery vehicles to accept street hails.

An earlier commentary criticized the law because it would make both yellow cab and livery service worse. Judge Engoron, however, based his decision on the State constitution, not on policy.

The New York State constitution grants home rule protection for cities as a shield against State intrusions into matters that ought to be handled at the local level.  Matters of  “property, affairs and government” are to be left to the cities, limited only to consistency with State law. There is a gap in the constitutional (read more…)