Temporarily blocking Mayor de Blasio's promise to destroy records related to the IDNYC program, a Staten Island Supreme Court judge ordered the city on Wednesday to keep the data it has already until a January hearing.
Judge Phillip Minardo's ruling was a victory for Staten Island Assemblymembers Nicole Malliotakis and Ronald Castorina, who are suing to keep the city from destroying the data, claiming that the destruction would violate the state's Freedom of Information Law. The data was set to be destroyed by December 31st, because of a clause in the legislation that created the municipal ID program meant to keep undocumented immigrants' information out of the hands of a hostile president.
Judge Minardo said he wasn't specifically ordering Mayor de Blasio or City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to come to the hearing, but did say "it would be helpful" if one or both of them attended, according to the Times. The hearing date will be set for either January 5th or 6th according to the Staten Island Advance.
Minardo ruled against Malliotakis and Castorina's request to prevent the city from destroying any new IDNYC data they collect, which the the city announced they would do following the election of Herr Trump. Minardo previously blocked the city's attempt to move the lawsuit to a Manhattan court.
To get a municipal ID, applicants need to show at least three documents proving their identity—officials accept driver's licenses, passports, visas, and certain foreign IDs—as well as one document proving New York City residency.
The Republican assemblymembers behind the suit argue that the application data could be used to investigate bank fraud and terrorism carried out by people using the municipal IDs.
In explaining this position, Malliotakis invoked the fact that all of the 9/11 hijackers except for one had obtained fraudulent government IDs, telling the Advance "You never know until something bad happens." An NYC ID cannot be used to get on an airplane.
