A judge is weighing whether Mayor Adrian Fenty has the authority to order D.C. taxis to switch to time-and-distance meters for calculating fares. 

A lawyer representing a group of cab drivers argued at a hearing Thursday that Fenty overstepped his authority when he ordered the switch. Jeffrey O'Toole says that power lies with the D.C. Taxicab Commission. 

But the city's senior assistant attorney general, Robert Utiger, says Fenty had every authority to make the decision to replace the often-confusing, decades-old zone system. 

Thursday's hearing was on the merits of the lawsuit. D.C. Superior Court Judge Brook Hedge could agree that Fenty had the authority or disagree -- sending the whole meter issue back to the drawing board. 

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Information from: The Washington Post

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