Tag: new york

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects New York Healthcare Workers’ Bid to Revive COVID Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit

The U.S. Supreme Court today declined for a second time to take up a case brought by New York healthcare workers who lost their jobs after the state denied their requests for religious accommodations from its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, SCOTUSblog reported.

The justices rejected a petition asking them to reconsider their June decision not to hear Does 1-2 v. Hochul, the lawsuit healthcare workers brought against the state. The court denied the request without asking New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to respond.

“This ruling is definitely a sad day for the workers who stood up and said no,” said Michael Kane, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) director of advocacy and member of New York’s Teachers for Choice, which also challenged New York’s vaccine mandate in the courts.

Kane said he was “not surprised” by the decision.

The plaintiffs represented a handful of healthcare workers, he said. “But over 30,000 were fired in New York state because of this horrendous policy from Gov. Hochul. The policy didn’t allow for any religious exemption from vaccination. On its face, it is illegal. It is unconstitutional, but the politics of the thing seems to be playing out instead.”

The workers filed their lawsuit in 2021, challenging a now-repealed New York state law mandating that workers in some healthcare-related positions get the COVID-19 vaccine.

In 2022, a federal court dismissed the lawsuit, and in 2024, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal. In 2025, the workers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In an unusual move, the Supreme Court asked the U.S. Department of Justice solicitor general to weigh in. In May 2026, Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote an amicus brief recommending the court deny the appeal.

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New York Officials Lied About Air Quality After 9/11, New Documents Show

New York City has agreed to release new documents showing that officials lied about the air quality in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

The more than 170,000 pages of documents are being released by NYC in response to the transparency organization 9/11 Health Watch, which had sued to force their disclosure.

According to the New York Times, the documents reveal that higher-than-acceptable levels of asbestos and other contaminants were in the dust and air in other parts of Lower Manhattan after Sept. 11.

“An audit from November 2001, prepared by a private firm and submitted to the federal E.P.A. based on data collected by New York City and state agencies, showed other troubling findings,” the Times reported Monday.

“That audit demonstrated that air concentration of the carcinogen benzene was still spiking near the towers’ footprint, and that the concentration of asbestos in the air at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island had increased after the attacks.”

Despite having information about the poor air quality, government officials, including then-EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman, said the air around ground zero was safe to breathe.

Whitman has since apologized for her misrepresentations.

The Times warned that the disclosures could reopen NYC to new litigation at a time when New Yorkers who were in the city at the time are dying of lung and blood cancers, as well as heart and respiratory diseases.

Denise Verzi, whose husband, Michael, was a firefighter who suffered from lymphoma after responding to the attack, criticized the city for its lack of transparency.

“I don’t understand hiding it to begin with,” Verzi told the Times. “That was horrific. But 25 years in, there’s people that are still getting sick.”

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Mamdani signs order on Labor Day creating ‘first-in-the-nation’ municipal office aimed at organizing NYC workers

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order creating the “first-in-the-nation” Mayor’s Office of Worker Power (MOWP).

Rolled out on Labor Day, the MOWP is aimed at organizing workers and connecting them with relevant resources, according to the mayor’s office.

“MOWP will work across City Hall and City agencies on outreach, education, policy, research and strategic partnerships focused on workers who lack meaningful benefits, adequate wages and a voice on the job,” read a Monday statement.

Per the mayor’s office, the MOWP will:

  • “Convene rank-and-file workers, union leaders, worker centers, immigrant workers, gig workers and platform workers.
  • Hold public hearings on significant worker issues.
  • Provide referrals to organizations that support workers.
  • Coordinate with City agencies to produce research on pressing issues facing workers.
  • Develop policy proposals informed by workers’ experiences.
  • Engage workers on emerging challenges, including new technologies, worker misclassification, immigration-based exploitation and climate risks to worker safety.
  • Connect workers with information about their rights at everyday touchpoints, including workforce centers, libraries, IDNYC offices, schools and community events.”

“We created the first-in-the-nation Office of Worker Power to put the full weight of City Hall behind the people who keep New York running,” Mamdani (D-N.Y.) posted to X on Monday.

The NYC mayor framed the history of Labor Day as stemming from a movement championed and furthered by democratic socialists to “win us weekends, safety standards, overtime pay, a minimum wage, and social security.”

In 1882, 10,000 workers marched up Broadway in the first-ever Labor Day parade. Led by democratic socialists and organized by New York’s unions, they rallied the movement that went o

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NYC socialist leaders caught living large, quietly collecting millions from real estate flips

Two NYC Democratic Socialists of America leaders have been caught living the ultimate capitalist dream, with one quietly collecting millions in real estate flips and another nesting in a sleek $500,000 Brooklyn apartment, The Post has learned.

Labor Coordinator Olivia Gonzalez Killingsworth sold a luxe Upper West Side triplex in a brownstone building for $2.4 million on Sept. 12, 2022, according to public records.

The “huge, versatile” two-bedroom, three-bathroom triplex just a block away from Central Park boasts sweeping 10-foot-high ceilings overlooking a fireplace, marble shower stalls, bay windows with a view of the gorgeous Callery Pear blossoms that line the street.

“Once again we’re finding out why DSA actually stands for Daddy’s Savings Account. Selling a multimillion-dollar Manhattan Triplex to go play pretend bohemian with your rich comrades in Brooklyn is a luxury working-class New Yorkers will never have,” said NYC Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens).

Killingsworth, who runs her own bookkeeping business and is also an actor and singer, according to her website, was elected labor coordinator in 2025.

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Mamdani’s 200-strong ‘influencer’ army revealed — with some PR peddlers pocketing taxpayer cash

They’re under Zo’s influence.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani assembled an army of nearly 200 “influencers,” giving the social media stars VIP access to push the lefty administration’s talking points, a new bombshell report revealed.

The web of online personalities are being fed talking points by City Hall through an encrypted Signal group text, potentially running afoul of local record-keeping laws, according to the study by the Columbia Journalism Review.

Some influencers are even pocketing taxpayer funds “for work on particular messaging campaigns,” though not for their coverage, the report states.

The secret Signal chat – named “NYC Creators Announcements” – combined with murky money left many watchdogs aghast.

“City leaders must be deliberate about how they communicate,” said Citizens Union Executive Director Grace Rauh “Any discussion of official government business must occur in a manner that ensures records are preserved and accessible under the Freedom of Information Law. The rules exist to protect the public.”

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Federal court rules teachers’ Pride flag messages to children are not protected by 1st Amendment

A federal appeals court has ruled that teachers’ Pride flags, the pro-LGBT messaging they demanded to use on their public school students, are not protected by the First Amendment.

“Plaintiffs-Appellants Christopher Dolce, Sarah Ecke, and Shinaide McAleavey-Polley allege that the Connetquot Central School District and its officials violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and Title VII when it ordered them to remove the pride flags and stickers that decorated the walls of their public high school classrooms,” said the opinion from the 2nd U.S Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Gonzalez, J.) dismissed their complaint for failure to state a claim, and the teachers appealed. Applying Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006), we conclude that the teachers’ classroom wall decorations constituted speech pursuant to their official duties as Government employees. As a result, the District did not violate their First Amendment rights when it ordered the teachers to remove them.

“We also conclude that the teachers have not plausibly pled that the District selectively enforced its policies against them because of an impermissible motivation, or that they suffered any adverse employment actions.”

Then a commentary at Twitchy revealed the surprise: The ruling was from “a Biden appointee who is a lesbian. That’s refreshing common sense.”

This surprise comes in an age when judges appointed by Barack Obama and Joe Biden routinely rule against President Donald Trump no matter the issue, the question or the legal dispute. One Washington-based leftist judge even has defied the U.S. Supreme Court in ruling politically against Trump.

The decision said, “Under Garcetti v. Ceballos … and its progeny, when public employees’ speech ‘owes its existence’ to their ‘professional responsibilities,’ the government – their employer – can control the content of that speech without implicating their Frist Amendment rights. The question in his case is whether that same principle applies to displays hung on the walls of a public high school teacher’s match classroom. We hold that it does.”

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Federal Judge Blocks New York From Enforcing $75 Billion Climate Superfund Law

A federal judge ruled on Monday that New York cannot enforce a 2024 state law that sought to impose an estimated $75 billion in charges on carbon-emitting companies for allegedly causing climate damage between 2000 and 2018.

Chief U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes in Syracuse, New York, sided with 22 Republican state attorneys general, as well as industry groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in finding the state measure preempted by federal law. The judge said the Clean Air Act, which gave the federal Environmental Protection Agency authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, did not authorize states to adopt emissions compensation schemes.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Climate Change Superfund Act into law in December 2024. It required about three dozen covered fossil-fuel companies to pay a combined $3 billion annually for 25 years, or $75 billion in total. The funds would have been earmarked for infrastructure work, including coastal wetlands, stormwater systems, roads, bridges, and responses to extreme weather.

Sannes said enforcing the law risked upsetting the balance of protecting the environment, “a project that necessarily requires national standards and global participation,” and promoting economic growth, energy production, foreign policy interests, and national security.

West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey led the coalition of states challenging the legislation in a February 2025 lawsuit. The attorneys general said at the time that New York’s law was politically motivated “overreach” that punished traditional energy companies, including West Virginia-based coal and natural gas companies, that now comply with applicable laws. They said payouts from coal, oil, and natural gas producers could wipe out thousands of jobs if the producers were forced to shut down.

“We were the first to challenge this law because we saw it for what it was – a money grab by the elites in New York, who want to punish West Virginians for doing the jobs that enable them to heat their homes and build their cities,” McCuskey said in an Aug. 31 statement.

Hochul’s office is reviewing the decision to determine possible next steps, spokesperson Ken Lovett said.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t have to foot the bill for damages caused by polluters,” he said.

New York was the second U.S. state to establish a superfund requiring major fossil-fuel companies to help finance infrastructure projects such as flood mitigation and coastal protection.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute sued Vermont on Dec. 30 to block that state’s superfund. That case remains pending.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson from the Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division welcomed Monday’s decision.

“New York’s law would have expropriated $75 billion from energy companies around the world during an energy emergency and in direct defiance of American foreign policy and federal law,” Gustafson said. “We will continue to fight for affordable, reliable energy for all Americans.”

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Trump Orders Shock Voter Fraud Crackdown in Nine States, Including: WA, WI, MO, GA, CA, PA, NV, NY and CT

Cue the shrieking demons in the leftist media!

President Trump ordered a shock voter fraud crackdown on Monday in nine states, including Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, and Connecticut.

It starts on Tuesday.

Homeland Security Investigations, ICE’s investigative arm, will launch what officials are calling a ‘coordinated criminal voter fraud surge initiative to pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews, and support timely prosecutorial review.’

Agents will be authorized to pursue investigative leads through mid-October — right as the midterm election season gets underway.

Today’s news comes after DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin previously stated 250,000+ noncitizens were found on voter rolls in four states.

In July, Secretary Mullin sent letters to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, New Jersey Secretary of State Dale Caldwell, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt.

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New York’s Biggest Teachers Union Fighting the Socialist Mayor It Helped Elect After Mamdani Files Lawsuit to Stop Pay Raise

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani received overwhelming support for his election from the city’s largest teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT).

Mamdani thanked them by filing a lawsuit to stop a pay raise for education paraprofessionals.

In July, the New York City Council passed the “RESPECT Check Act,” giving public-school paraprofessionals, like teacher aides, a one-time $10,000 “workforce stabilization” payment.

The Act was passed by the Council unanimously and became law without the mayor’s signature.

Although Mamdani supported a version of the bill in the past, now that he is comfortable in the Mayor’s seat, he has changed his mind.

He argued that the Act violates New York State’s Taylor Law and ultimately filed a lawsuit against the city.

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Prosecutor Blows the Whistle on NY AG Letitia James’ Office, Says He Was Ordered to “Find Crimes” Committed by Trump Despite Zero Evidence

A federal prosecutor blew the whistle on New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office and said he was ordered to “find crimes” committed by President Trump and people affiliated with Trump – despite zero evidence.

According to the Times Union, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld sent an agency-wide email to thousands of employees in the New York Attorney General’s office claiming his supervisor, Shamiso Maswoswe instructed him to target “Trump himself, Truth Social, Hewlett Packard (DOJ approved merger) … without having a credible reason for targeting this organizations and individuals.”

The Times Union obtained the email that was sent out on Friday. The email was immediately deleted and wiped from the office’s servers.

Daniel Wiesenfeld wrote a follow-up email after his original message was deleted.

“If you believe Trump is using (Department of Justice) attorneys to prosecute his enemies and further his political interests, you should find it equally troubling that Tish (James) is doing exactly the same thing,” Wiesenfeld wrote, according to the Times Union.

“I ask that you not serve as Tish’s personal attorneys by targeting her political enemies. Instead, I hope you choose to prosecute crimes and find the individuals accountable, rather than targeting individuals and then finding crimes,” he wrote.

The Times Union reported:

A prosecutor in the New York attorney general’s office sent an agency-wide email to hundreds of colleagues Friday claiming that he had been instructed by his supervisor “to find and pursue crimes committed by specific individuals and organizations affiliated with Donald Trump,” according to a copy of the email obtained by the Times Union.

The prosecutor, who was assigned to the Investor Protection Bureau, alleged in his email that his bureau chief, Shamiso Maswoswe, had directed him to target “Trump himself, Truth Social, Hewlett Packard (DOJ approved merger) … without having a credible reason for targeting this organizations and individuals.”

The email sent early Friday by Assistant Attorney General Daniel Wiesenfeld, who officials said has worked for the attorney general’s office for about two years, was quickly deleted from the office’s servers and vanished from the inboxes of more than 2,000 employees. A follow-up agency-wide email subsequently sent by Attorney General Letitia James’ general counsel, Kumiki Gibson, informed employees that it was an “internal” matter and that no one in the office was “in danger,” according to three people familiar with the communication.

Letitia James previously sued President Trump and tried to secure a $400 million+ judgment against him and seize his assets, even though no victim was identified.

Last year, Letitia James was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia.

According to the DOJ, Letitia James was charged with two crimes: Bank Fraud under 18 U.S.C. Section 1344 and False Statements to a Financial Institution under 18 U.S.C. Section 1014.

A federal judge ultimately dropped the charges against Letitia James, ruling that Interim US Attorney for the EDVA Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed.

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