On Dec. 23 this space had an editorial urging that in the court battles over congestion pricing, that the judges must leave the tolls in place. And that’s what happened as that day Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Liman issued his 111-page opinion denying efforts by plaintiffs in four separate lawsuits to stop the Jan. 5 start of charging vehicles driving below 60th St., writing that the tolls were fully legal. Then later that same day Westchester Federal Judge Cathy Seibel explained from the bench why two other suits failed to bar the program. The good news kept coming a week later, on Dec. 30, when Newark Federal Judge Leo Gordon promulgated his own 72-page opinion. Gordon did not do what New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy sought, which was to prevent the tolls from beginning this coming Sunday, so that’s a win for New York and the MTA, at least according to Gov. Hochul and MTA Chair Janno Lieber. However, Gordon also demanded answers from the regulator, the pro-congestion pricing (at least until Jan. 20) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) by Jan. 17 regarding any differences in mitigation measures for the Bronx and New Jersey and an explanation of how congestion pricing’s goals on curbing traffic tie in with generating money for the MTA’s capital budget. Gordon said that Jersey could comment on the coming FHWA submission by Jan. 29. with an MTA response due by Feb. 11. To Murphy and his lawyer, Randy Mastro, that was a win for them, claiming that any tolling could not start until the feds had acted. Us nonlawyers think that if Gordon wanted to stop the tolls coming on Sunday (he was very much aware of the timetable) he would have done so and like his judicial colleagues Liman and Seibel, he declined. But such was the level of confusion that Jersey asked Gordon to clarify and the judge then directed both sides to submit briefs regarding what they think he was thinking in his own decision. We hope he knows and refuses to throw up a stop sign. The deadline for the MTA and the FHWA was last evening at 6 and both said the tolls should go forward. Jersey replies at 1 p.m. today and then Gordon will hold a hearing at 3 p.m. to decide what he meant in his lengthy opinion. Everyone will await his word, with the tolls due to start just 33 hours after his hearing commences, midnight as Saturday turns into Sunday. There are still two more judges with congestion pricing cases, both on Long Island, Federal Judge Joan Azrack and Nassau state Supreme Court Justice Lisa Cairo. Azrack hasn’t ruled and Cairo has a hearing on Jan. 16 on the issue if the MTA and Hochul followed state law (we know they did) but Cairo has not tried to stop the tolls. So it all comes down to Gordon, who is handling the oldest of the 10 congestion pricing lawsuits, filed July 21, 2023, so he’s had the longest to think about it. We know that he also understands the matter of Manhattan commuting exceptionally well, having served either a clerk or a judge on the United States Court of International Trade since 1981 and during all those 44 years the court has been in Downtown Manhattan, making Gordon a commuter himself.