As you will recall, the Governor of Texas has been loading up busloads of illegal migrants in his state and shipping them out to blue cities around the country, with a particular emphasis on New York. That flow of buses has slowed down a bit this summer, but not enough to satisfy Mayor Eric Adams of the Big Apple. He wanted to stop the bus shipments entirely. Being unable to find a way to stop Governor Greg Abbott from sending them, Adams decided to take the bus companies to court, seeking to either force them to go elsewhere or to pay huge fees to cover the cost of caring for the migrants. That legal battle appeared to come to an end this week when the New York State Supreme Court ruled against Adams saying that his demands of the bus companies were unconstitutional. The Mayor's office said that he would respect the court's decision. (CBS News)

The New York State Supreme Court has ruled against Mayor Eric Adams' attempt to block migrant buses from arriving in New York City.

The mayor had requested a preliminary injunction barring Texas-based bus companies from transporting asylum seekers to the city.

The New York Civil Liberties Union argued the mayor's move was unconstitutional. The court agreed and rejected the mayor's request. Tuesday, the mayor's office said it respects the court's decision.

The Mayor's lawsuit had targeted 17 bus companies. He demanded that they either stop dropping off migrants in the city or pay the city a staggering sum of $700 million to pay for their shelter, food, and health care. The bus companies refused and the ACLU took up their cause, eventually emerging victorious.

Without even diving into the underlying constitutional questions, the rules that the Mayor was attempting to impose simply sounded crazy from the beginning. The bus companies work in the transportation sector and they carry people from point A to point B. That's the entire reason they exist. People are free to travel around the country, including interstate travel. Someone pays for a ticket (in this case Governor Abbott) and the person is free to board the bus. Adams wasn't forbidding all travel from Texas. He was specifically trying to target the migrants. If the bus companies started trying to pick and choose who they transport, they would be the ones getting sued by the passengers. 

Then there is the basis for Adams' claim that the bus companies needed to pay for the cost of the migrants. Adams accused the companies of "violating New York's Social Services Law by dropping off thousands of people without providing a means of support." That is also a bizarre and unsupportable accusation. Millions of people ride buses every day and it is not the bus line's obligation to check their financial status before they board provided they have enough money for a ticket. If Grayhound picks up a homeless citizen in Atlant (who has a ticket) and drops them off in Manhattan, it isn't the bus line's obligation to find them a place to stay.

In reality, nobody should be obligated to provide shelter, food, and health care for people who suddenly show up from other parts of the country. Churches and charities typically tend to such matters. But that's an "obligation" that New York City took on for itself when it decided to declare itself a sanctuary and pass a "right to shelter" law. That's not Greg Abbott's fault. And it's not the fault of the bus companies. I'm glad the state supreme court came to the same conclusion.