Zohran Mamdani to become NYC's next mayor with a midnight oath underground

Zohran Mamdani will become mayor of New York City as the clock ticks over into 2026 — but the celebrations are set to last through New Year's Day.

The Democrat's team is planning two separate swearing-in ceremonies Thursday — a small, private one with his family in an old subway station around midnight, followed by a large event in the afternoon that will include a public block party outside City Hall.

As a new mayor’s term begins immediately with the new year, it has been customary for the city's incoming leaders to hold two events. Departing Mayor Eric Adams held his initial swearing-in at Times Square shortly after the famous ball drop, while Adams’ predecessor Bill de Blasio took his first oath at home in Brooklyn.

For his part, Mamdani will take his initial oath at the former City Hall subway station in Manhattan — one of the city's original stops on its subterranean transit system, known for its tiled arches and vaulted ceilings.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a political ally and notable foe of President Donald Trump, will administer the oath of office.

The old City Hall stop was designed as the flagship station of the city's first subway line but was decommissioned in 1945. These days, outside of occasional guided historical tours, locals can usually only catch a glimpse of it by staying on the 6 train after its last stop downtown when it turns around to head north.

The decision to be sworn in at the former City Hall subway station reflected his “commitment to the working people who keep our city running every day,” his office said.

Mamdani said the station represents an era when New York invested in infrastructure meant to improve people’s lives, an ambition he said his administration aims to carry forward.

On Thursday afternoon Mamdani will be sworn in again, this time by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of his political heroes, on the steps of City Hall in a ceremony. It's scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m. with opening remarks from U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another political ally and a fellow New Yorker.

In both ceremonies Mamdani, who will be the city’s first Muslim mayor, will place his hand on Qurans as he takes the oath of office, marking the first time a New York mayor has used Islam’s holy text to be sworn in.

Mamdani's transition formed an inaugural committee that includes actor John Turturro, playwright Cole Escola and writer Colson Whitehead, as well as advocates, small business owners and campaign workers who the incoming mayor's office says have “provided perspective, guidance, and cultural sensibility” for the ceremony.

The public swearing-in will be accompanied by a block party along a stretch of Broadway leading up to City Hall. Mamdani's office expects thousands of people to attend and says there will be performances, music and interfaith elements.

In drawing attention to mayoral history, Mamdani’s election also ended up illuminating a record-keeping glitch. A city archivist concluded that Mamdani appears to be the 112th mayor, not the 111th, as had been thought before historians flagged an oversight concerning a 17th-century mayor who served twice.

Mamdani has spent the past weeks staffing up his incoming government and made a series of key appointments as recently as Wednesday, hours before his swearing-in.

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed.

FILE - Republican Rudolph Giuliani, right, is symbolically sworn-in as New York City Mayor by U.S. District Court Judge Michael B. Mukasey, left, during a private ceremony in New York, Friday, Dec. 31, 1993. Giuliani's wife Donna Hanover, center, stands with their children Andrew, 7, and Caroline, 4 and Giuliani's mother Helen looks on. (AP Photo/Ed Bailey, File)

FILE - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg arrives for his second inaugural swearing in ceremony at City Hall, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2006 in New York. (Ozier Muhammad/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, right, takes the oath of office administered by former President Bill Clinton, left, as de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, center, holds the bible for her husband during his public inauguration ceremony at City Hall in New York, on Jan. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - Eric Adams is sworn in as mayor of New York City on the stage of the New Year's Eve celebration in New York's Times Square on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted, File)

FILE - Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, center, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., appear on stage during a rally, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in New York tossed out actor Blake Lively’s sexual harassment claims Thursday against actor Justin Baldoni over their roles in the movie “It Ends With Us,” but he left intact three claims, including retaliation, that will let a jury hear many of the allegations anyway.

The written ruling by Judge Lewis J. Liman in Manhattan came after Lively sued Baldoni last December, alleging sexual harassment among over a dozen claims against Baldoni and other parties.

A trial is scheduled for May 18.

Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios had countersued Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion. The judge dismissed Baldoni’s claims last June.

In his ruling, Liman determined that Lively was an independent contractor rather than an employee. On that basis, he said she was not entitled to bring sexual harassment claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law prohibits employment discrimination on various grounds, including gender.

As to retaliation claims, the judge said some evidence might enable a jury to conclude that Baldoni's production company planned not only to damage Lively's reputation but to destroy her career as there was fear she would file a discrimination claim. Lively alleges that a smear campaign has been “devastating for her reputation and career,” the judge noted.

In an analysis of the sexual harassment claims, the judge said Lively's claims had to be viewed in the context of the movie they were working on.

“Lively claims that during filming, Baldoni leaned in and gestured as if he was intending to kiss her, and that he kissed her forehead, rubbed his face and mouth against her neck, put his thumb to her mouth and flicked her lower lip, caressed her, and leaned into her neck, saying ‘it smells good,’” the judge wrote.

He said there was no question that the conduct would support a hostile work environment claim if it happened on a factory floor or in an executive suite.

However, the judge noted, Baldoni was “acting in the scene.”

“Assuming he was improvising, the conduct was not so far beyond what might reasonably be expected to take place between two characters during a slow dancing scene such that an inference of hostile treatment on the basis of sex would arise. At least in isolation, the conduct was directed to Lively’s character rather than to Lively herself,” he wrote.

“Creative artists, no less than comedy room writers, must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment,” Liman added.

Despite those findings, the judge said some of Lively's claims about sexual harassment may be put to a jury to support two retaliation claims that survived the ruling, including one against It Ends With Us Movie LLC and Wayfarer Studios, and a third claim that was left intact alleging breach of a contract rider agreement against It Ends With Us Movie LLC.

The judge noted that Baldoni once said “pretty hot” after asking Lively to remove her jacket, exposing a lace bra underneath, and that when he was warned that it was inappropriate and distracting to make such comment, he allegedly rolled his eyes and responded: “Sorry, I missed the sexual harassment training.”

Liman also cited a scene in which Baldoni pushed for Lively to perform a birth scene naked and then the scene was filmed over several hours without the set being closed to nonessential personnel.

And in another instance, the judge said, it was alleged that Baldoni volunteered that he had previously been addicted to pornography and Lively said she had never seen pornography.

Liman said it “may be fair grounds for an author or a director to discuss personal experiences, including those related to sex, as part of the creative process,” but the judge wrote that Baldoni may have crossed the line when he later announced to others on set that Lively had never seen pornography.

In a statement, Lively attorney Sigrid McCawley wrote that Lively “looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it become easier to detect and fight.”

She added: “This case has always been and will remain focused on the devasting retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial.”

A lawyer for Baldoni and his production company did not immediately comment.

“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August 2024, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.

Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”

Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the 2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity.

This combination of images shows Blake Lively at the London screening of the film "It 'Ends With Us" on Aug. 8, 2024, left, and Justin Baldoni at the world premiere of the film in New York on Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo)