New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is currently facing a choice: whether to veto either of two protest buffer-zone bills passed by the city council late last month, which critics say would be a major blow to free speech.

Intro 1-B and Intro 175-B, the “buffer zone” bills, would enable the New York Police Department (NYPD) to enact restrictions on protesting around houses of worship and educational institutions, respectively. Both bills passed the city council on March 26, and both have drawn extensive criticism. Unions, civil rights groups, activists, and the city’s ascendant democratic socialist left have argued that passing the bills would curtail the right to protest in large swaths of the city.

The mayor has thirty days to veto or sign laws after they are passed by the council. If he does neither, the bill automatically passes. Mamdani’s last chance to issue a veto on both or either bill is this Saturday. Opponents are concentrating on Intro 175-B, the Education Buffer Zone Bill. Unlike Intro 1-B, Intro 175-B passed the city council without a veto-proof majority, which leaves room for a Mamdani veto to sink the bill.