The Adams administration’s $700 million lawsuit against bus companies that brought migrants up from the southern border was dismissed Friday, a judge decided, writing the case was based on an “antiquated” and “unconstitutional” law.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Mary Rosado wrote in the six-page decision that the statute is “sweepingly overbroad” — and told the city to take it up with national lawmakers.
“Instead of seeking resolution in Congress, the [administration] asks this court to enforce an antiquated, unconstitutional statute to infringe on an individual’s right to enter New York based on economic status,” Rosado said, adding that, if enforced, the law would even call into question interstate travel.
Adams spokeswoman Liz Garcia said the city is reviewing its legal options “to address the costs shifted to New York City as a result the Texas busing scheme.”
The suit, filed in January, alleged that 17 charter bus companies violated the state’s Social Services Law as part of a program by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to bus more than 30,000 migrants since 2022 to the Big Apple with no coordination with city officials.
The city’s lawyers said the bus operators owe the city $708 million that was spent on providing food, shelter and healthcare to the migrants.
The law holds that it is illegal to bring someone into the state “for the purpose of making him a public charge” and is based on a 19th-century “pauper’s law.”
Gov. Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When the suit was filed, Abbott said Adams’ admin should be sanctioned by the court for the “baseless” case.
“It’s clear that Mayor Adams knows nothing about the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, or about the constitutional right to travel that has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Abbott said in a statement in January.
The Texas governor began sending migrants to New York and other liberal cities at the beginning of the asylum seeker crisis in 2022 to put pressure on Democratic leaders.
Mark Levine, lead attorney for 16 of the bus companies, slammed the statue as “extraordinarily offensive,” pointing out that his legal team could not find a single instance where the law had been enforced.
“It got dug up for the purpose of this political suit against a political action by the governor of Texas,” Levine said in an interview.
“The dismissal marks a step toward a positive future and away from antiquated and discriminatory laws that should have long been removed from the books,” attorneys for Roadrunner Charters, the 17th bus company, said in a statement.
The judge had previously denied the city’s request for a preliminary injunction against Abbott’s bus convoys, calling the case “dubious at best.”
“With this decision, the court rightly rejected Mayor Eric Adams’ cruel and morally repugnant attempts to bar immigrants from traveling to and making a home in New York City,” said Beth Haroules, senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. The NYCLU filed a brief in the case.
City Hall officials said Friday that the administration hasn’t seen any buses chartered by the defendant companies arrive in New York since June.