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New Yorkers stretch out on the F train in early May, shortly after the subway system was shut down overnight.
Frank Franklin II/AP/Shutterstock
The MTA's pandemic-era rules prohibiting the use of certain sized carts and lingering in a subway station are designed to unlawfully discriminate against homeless New Yorkers, according to a new lawsuit filed by advocates on Friday.
Those rules, which were first enacted in April "to safeguard public health," and then made permanent in September, prohibit wheeled carts 30 inches long or wide. They also bar riders from staying in a subway station longer than an hour—unless they are performing or distributing pamphlets or engaged in other activity the MTA permits.