Ex-con Hiram Monserrate will likely be on the ballot for next month’s Democratic primary and challenge Councilman Francisco Moya for his old seat after a law designed to keep him from running for public office in New York City was struck down in Manhattan Supreme Court Tuesday.
The city’s Board of Elections threw Monserrate off the ballot last month, citing Local Law 15, known colloquially as “Hiram’s Law,” which was struck down by Supreme Court Justice Machelle Sweeting. In her ruling, Sweeting wrote that the law, passed by the City Council in 2021, did not apply to Monserrate and its “retroactive application is deemed unconstitutional,” and Monserrate should not be barred “from holding elected city office for certain felony convictions prior to the enactment of Local Law 15.”
