Re: Trigger warning! Government attorney files privileged internal work document

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

Apr 25, 2025 at 1:28:44 PM PDT, Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com>:

LeagleEagle's Devin Stone's video starts with a trigger warning for
practicing attorney, that this is a nightmare scenario in which an
attorney made a massive fuck up. He filed an internal document, a work
product protected by attorney-client privilege, which was a memo
analyzing that the government doesn't have much of a case arguing
against the implimentation of congestion pricing in New York city.

Which government? If it's the federal government, the only way I can see
them having any jurisdiction is via the Commerce Clause because NYC's
congestion pricing directly affects commerce with New Jersey.

To be specific, the lawyer for the Trump administration included the
confidential memo that said their case was very weak with the court.

(Now I'll wait while you pick yourself off the floor and wave the vapors away
as you recover from the shock of me actually arguing in *favor* of the use of
federal power via the Commerce Clause.)

You needed to give me a trigger warning here!

If it's the state or local governments, I don't see why they wouldn't have a
case, since regulating traffic and vehicles is directly a matter of state and
local jurisdiction.

One question I can never seem to find the answer to regarding NYC's congestion
tolls is how they deal with out-of-state drivers. They must have some way of
tolling the New Jersey drivers since that's about 50% of the cars entering
Manhattan every day and any tolling scheme that doesn't account for them would
be a failure from its inception. But does the system have the ability to
access *every* state's DMV and toll their drivers?

There are lower tolls for those using EZ-Pass (and I guess tolling
systems they have an agreement with like my state), so that includes New
Jersey and other states. Otherwise you are billed by mail at a higher
toll. It's problematic.

The city Department of Transportation logs the numbers of
unreadable plates, and data expert Jehiah Czebotar visualizes
them every quarter on his website. The takeaway? Two out of
every nine recorded speed violations in New York City were
rejected in September 2024 (the most-recent month for which
there is data) because the vehicle had a temporary license
plate, a marred or otherwise unreadable license plate, or no
detected license plate at all.

The city data show that the biggest offenders are motorcyclists
or moped riders who do not have the required plates. Those
motorists are subject to a small congestion fee.

. . .

The MTA, because it has a police force, has access to state DMV
data for legitimate temporary tags, and says it is only 1.5
percent of its toll transactions are unbillable. But a spokesman
confirmed late on Saturday that "there are some states we do not
receive temp plate information from." (The agency said it would
provide the list on Monday.)

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/01/05/congestion-pricing-has-begun-here-is-the-only-explainer-you-need

No they cannot obtain registration information from every state.

If I'm on a driving vacation and end up in NYC, can the system access the
California DMV and hit me up, too? Not all of these tolling systems can
do that, so the answer isn't as clear as you might think. For example,
I drive to Texas every Christmas to spend the holidays with my family
and I drive on the toll roads around Austin, which allow you to pay by
mail if you don't have a transponder. Five years and counting and I have
yet to get anything in the mail back in California from the Texas Toll
Roads asking me to pay a toll. So I'm very curious the extent and reach
of NYC's toll system.

You're probably right that they won't be able to bill you. But if your
state's toll system is compatible with EZ-Pass, remove it.

. . .

So I called up that wretched hive of scum and villainy in Sacramento and was
bounced from one office to another until I got to the enabling bill's sponsor,
and then to the legislative aide who was authoring the damn thing and asked
him how this would all work and he said that right now, it's set up so drivers
have a choice. You can either pay the tax based on a simple reading of your
odometer (this year's reading minus last year's reading = taxable miles
driven) which would tax all your miles equally or you can choose to have a GPS
monitor installed on your vehicle which will note the location of every mile
and exempt those driven outside the state.

That's not creepy or anything. I take it the brain implant isn't quite
ready for prime time?

So basically, if you rarely or
never drive outside of the state, you can just have them read your odometer
when you get your smog certification and report it to the state or you can do
the GPS thing if you're someone who maybe lives near the border or takes long
out-of-state trips on a regular basis.