{"id":3320,"date":"2026-06-30T09:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T09:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3320"},"modified":"2026-06-30T09:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T09:37:09","slug":"mamdanis-rent-freeze-win-could-come-back-to-bite-him-at-the-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3320","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani’s rent-freeze win could come back to bite him \u2014 at the Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Tenants\u2019 groups and left-wing activists are cheering New York City\u2019s newly announced multi-year rent freeze.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Nancy Pelosi\u2019s legacy: Power above all<\/a><\/p>\n

But they could be in for a judicial smackdown: Don\u2019t expect Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s rent freeze to survive a constitutional challenge.<\/p>\n

In 2023 and twice in 2024 a hesitant US Supreme Court declined to hear building owners\u2019 challenges to New York state\u2019s rent regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lower courts acknowledged the regulations diminished the value of rental properties but said the state was balancing the rights of owners\u00a0with the need to protect tenants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the time, Justice Clarence Thomas said the constitutionality of New York\u2019s rent regulations is\u00a0\u201can important and pressing question\u201d\u00a0\u2014 and that\u00a0he looked forward to a rent-control case that clearly demonstrates the government going too far to take an owner\u2019s property.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u00a0has given Justice Thomas what he\u2019s been\u00a0waiting for, on a silver platter.<\/p>\n

Moscow Mamdani\u2019s scheme to deny landlords any rent hikes at all smacks of the kind of expropriation of private property that occurs in Cuba, Venezuela and other socialist nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not in America: The US Constitution prohibits it.<\/p>\n

The Takings Clause in Article 5 of the Bill of Rights bars government from imposing regulations that make a person\u2019s property worthless.<\/p>\n

Everyone who owns anything \u2014 a home or a business of any sort \u2014 should feel threatened by Mamdani\u2019s\u00a0Bolshevik scheme to deny building owners fair compensation, dooming their rental properties to rapid decay and then literally seizing their buildings. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After landlords, who\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

Under the framework established by the New York state Legislature, the Rent Guidelines Board\u00a0must determine allowable rent hikes based on the specific costs landlords incur.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Mamdani\u2019s hand-picked RGB members threw the letter of the law out the window.<\/p>\n

Fuel costs went up 11% in the last year, and insurance rose 10.5%\u00a0\u2014 but Mamdani\u2019s RGB announced last week that landlords will get no increases this year or the next.<\/p>\n

And no rent hikes in the years after that, either, if the RGB makes good on Mamdani\u2019s campaign promise that rents will stay frozen as long as he\u2019s the mayor. <\/p>\n

Zero rent hikes will cause buildings to rapidly fall into disrepair \u2014 just what the new mayor intends.<\/p>\n

Last month\u00a0he announced that City Hall \u201cwill take aggressive legal action\u201d to \u201ctransfer ownership to responsible stewards when landlords fail to keep buildings up to code.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those stewards will include \u201ccommunity land trusts, nonprofits and even the tenants themselves,\u201d he declared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Rare tick-borne virus turns deadly fast as US cases reach record high, experts warn<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s allowed under current local law, but only under extreme circumstances:\u00a0It applied to fewer than 30 properties in 2024, and generally doesn\u2019t result in permanent confiscation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Mamdani\u2019s rent freeze means many landlords will lack the revenue to keep apartments up to code.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rent freeze deliberately creates the conditions for widespread confiscation, turning them into targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Think Bolshevik Moscow in 1917, when the communists annulled private property rights, seized buildings and decreed them communal living spaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lefties become the new land barons.<\/p>\n

Last week RGB member Cristina Smyth, appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams,\u00a0resigned in protest just hours before the vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saying the freeze\u00a0\u201cwas decided last year on\u00a0the campaign trail,\u201d she offered to help any building owner willing to wage a legal battle. \u201cI will do everything I can to assist them in being successful,\u201d she pledged.<\/p>\n

Bring on the fight.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that a\u00a0lawsuit already filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against New York City and the\u00a0RGB also has a significant shot at judicial success.<\/p>\n

This suit focuses on the narrow case of so-called \u201czombie\u201d apartments \u2014 units that stand empty and unrented due to a 2019 state law that tightly restricts how much owners can pass along to tenants when they spend what\u2019s needed to get apartments up to code.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That leaves an estimated 57,000 zombie units sitting vacant, exacerbating the housing crunch and impoverishing building owners. \u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely to take two or three years for this case, or on any new challenge to Mamdani\u2019s rent freeze, to reach the high court.<\/p>\n

But when and if they do, the justices could well slap down Mamdani\u2019s rent freeze, his confiscations or any portion of the city\u2019s rent regulatory scheme as an unconstitutional \u201ctaking\u201d \u2014 as Thomas is clearly itching to do.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

And no matter how the throngs of left-wing tenant advocates may howl, Mamdani will have to comply.<\/p>\n

Everyone in New York who owns anything \u2014 a home, a rental property, a diner, a bodega or any other business \u2014 has a stake in this legal fight.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s scheme to seize rental properties is a red flag that all property rights are in peril. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more 1984 photo of worker kissing Statue of Liberty in daring display resurfaces ahead of America 250 celebrations<\/a><\/p>\n

He\u2019s going after landlords first, but you could be next.<\/p>\n

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left-wing activists could be in for a judicial smackdown: Don’t expect Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze to survive a constitutional challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-betsy-mccaughey","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nMamdani's rent-freeze win could come back to bite him \u2014 at the Supreme Court - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=3320\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mamdani's rent-freeze win could come back to bite him \u2014 at the Supreme Court - 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