{"id":304114,"date":"2026-07-23T20:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/304114\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T20:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:54:10","slug":"federal-judge-bars-nyc-law-protecting-rideshare-drivers-from-wrongful-deactivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/304114\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge bars NYC law protecting rideshare drivers from wrongful deactivation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rideshare companies notched a win against city enforcers this week when a federal judge blocked a City Council law that prevented Uber<\/a> and Lyft<\/a> from abruptly deactivating drivers, ruling it unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Woods issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday that stops the city from starting its July 28 scheduled implementation of Local Law 52, which would protect around 87,000 for-hire vehicle drivers from being immediately deactivated, except in cases of egregious misconduct.<\/p>\n

The New York City Council passed the law<\/a> in December in order to prevent the potential economic damages that sudden deactivations pose for rideshare drivers \u2014 91% of whom are immigrants and a majority of whom are paying off their vehicles, according to data cited in court papers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his decision, Woods wrote that the balance of the equities and the public interest is in Uber\u2019s favor. Part of his reasoning was based on the assessment that only a small group of drivers are affected by wrongful deactivations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe record documents hardships that wrongful deactivation imposes on drivers but does not estimate how many deactivations were wrongful,\u201d Woods wrote. \u201cThe record does not establish that the group likely to require its protections is large in the context of the public served by the City Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling means that the city will be preliminarily blocked from enforcing the rule as the lawsuit moves forward. Wood concluded that Uber is likely to prevail in its argument that Local Law 52 does not further a significant and legitimate public purpose and that it impedes rideshare companies\u2019 constitutional contractual rights.<\/p>\n

Queens City Council Member Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens), the law\u2019s sponsor, said that he strongly disagreed with the decision and would continue to fight for due process for app-based drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are evaluating this latest ruling and considering next steps to ensure these protections are upheld,\u201d Krishnan wrote.\n<\/p>\n

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance also slammed Woods\u2019 decision, criticizing his reasoning that rideshare drivers are a \u201cnarrow class.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an extreme, pro-corporation position that would be a danger to the rights of every working person if it were allowed to stand,\u201d wrote NYTWA executive director Bhairavi Desai. \u201cThe decision is a punch in the gut to New York City workers and a slap in the face of democracy, endangering the city\u2019s ability to enact any workforce-specific regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uber filed its complaint against the city in June, asserting that Local Law 52 violates the Contracts Clause, the Due Process Clause, and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

Woods found that Uber and Lyft were likely to succeed in their case that the regulation undermines their contracts with drivers and their authority to investigate \u201cdeceptive, fraudulent, unsafe, illegal, harmful\u201d conduct.<\/p>\n

The judge also raised concerns that the bill would impede the companies\u2019 ability to \u201cpolice the safety of their platforms and their passengers.\u201d Though the bill would still allow Uber and Lyft to deactivate drivers who pose a danger to passengers, Woods objected to the strict five-day timeline requiring the companies to detail the reasons for a temporary deactivation while a complaint is being reviewed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Uber or Lyft failed to provide proper documentation for a driver accused of sexual assault, Woods wrote, then the driver could be later reinstated to the platform because of a \u201cprocedural defect.\u201d<\/p>\n

He concluded that the risks to the rideshare companies and the general public outweighed the risks to the city or what he asserted to be \u201ca very small but undetermined number of drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rideshare companies notched a win against city enforcers this week when a federal judge blocked a City Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[32701,38668,115262,115263,115264,25860,115265,115266,3100,115267,1776,9,16152,56,63,51410,65,64,5101,308,115268,22910,6480,49191],"class_list":["post-304114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bhairavi-desai","tag-blocked","tag-city-council-law","tag-contracts-clause","tag-driver-deactivations","tag-federal-judge","tag-for-hire-vehicle-drivers","tag-gregory-woods","tag-lawsuit","tag-local-law-52","tag-lyft","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-taxi-workers-alliance","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-council","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-preliminary-injunction","tag-public-safety","tag-rideshare-companies","tag-shekar-krishnan","tag-uber","tag-unconstitutional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}