A New York judge on Friday struck down a Long Island county official’s executive order banning transgender-identifying athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.
New York State supreme court judge Francis Ricigliano found Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman did not have the authority to issue the order.
“With the stated goal of protecting women’s and girls’ rights to compete athletically, the County Executive issued an Executive Order aimed at preventing transgender women from participating in girls’ and women’s athletics at Nassau County parks, despite there being no corresponding legislative enactment providing the County Executive with the authority to issue such an order,” Ricigliano said in the 13-page decision.
The judge’s decision came in response to a lawsuit the New York Civil Liberties Union filed on behalf of Long Island Roller Rebels, a roller derby league that was barred from using county facilities under the order. The group argued the order discriminated on the basis of gender identity.
The executive order, which Blakeman signed into law on February 22, would prevent transgender athletes or teams with transgender athletes from using Nassau County’s sports facilities. It would restrict the issue of permits from the Nassau County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Museums to any women’s or girls’ sports team that includes one or more transgender players on its roster. The order would affect over 100 sports venues in the county.
“What we are saying here today with our executive order is that if a league or team identifies themselves or advertises themselves to be a girls or women’s league or team, then biological males should not be competing in those leagues,” he told reporters when issuing the order earlier this year.
The order sparked a back-and-forth between Blakeman and state attorney general Letitia James, who ordered the Nassau County executive to rescind the trans-sports ban in March. James said the order was in violation of the state’s anti-discrimination laws. Blakeman then filed a fedreal lawsuit against James, arguing that her cease-and-desist letter violated the Constitution’s equal-protection clause under the Fourteenth Amendment. Blakeman’s lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
James celebrated the New York supreme court’s decision on Friday, calling it a “major victory.”
“In New York, it is illegal to discriminate against a person because of their gender identity or expression,” she wrote in a post on X.
Blakeman, meanwhile, said the decision represented a “lack of courage from a judge who didn’t want to decide the case on its merits.”
“Unfortunately girls and women are hurt by the court,” he said.