A federal judge on Thursday denied Nassau County’s request for an order preventing the state attorney general from suing the county over its sports ban on transgender women and girls.
The judge, Nusrat Choudhury, ruled that the Republican-led Long Island county lacked standing to bring the lone claim in a lawsuit filed last month against state Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat.
In court, Nassau County requested a temporary restraining order preventing James from suing over the ban, which forbids transgender women and girls in Nassau County from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity at about 100 county-run facilities.
In a 45-page opinion, Choudhury wrote the county’s “submission fails to demonstrate irreparable harm — a critical prerequisite for the issuance of a temporary restraining order.”
In her decision, Choudhury did not dismiss the lawsuit or offer an opinion on the legality of the ban.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, sued James after she threatened legal action against the county over the ban. In a statement, she declared the ban “transphobic and blatantly illegal” and instructed Blakeman to withdraw it immediately.
Her office also penned a cease-and-desist letter to Nassau County saying that the ban violated human rights law. The federal lawsuit has revolved around the cease-and-desist letter. As of Thursday, the attorney general had not sued the county over the ban.
Blakeman’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, said James’ cease-and-desist letter violates the rights of “girls and women who are a federally recognized protected class.”
The complaint requested a declaratory judgment holding that the county order is legal.
James’ office responded in court documents by accusing Nassau County of breaking state and federal law, and by asking for the dismissal of Blakeman’s suit. But the attorney general stopped short of explicitly asking the court to quash the ban.
In a filing last month, the attorney general’s office wrote that the ban “directly contravenes” state law, which makes it illegal for county-run places of public accommodation to discriminate on the basis of gender identity.
Nassau County’s ban does not apply to transgender men playing in men’s sports, and it does not explicitly consider nonbinary New Yorkers.
Separately, the New York Civil Liberties Union sued Nassau County last month over the ban.
The NYCLU’s complaint, filed in Nassau County Supreme Court, asserted that the county’s ban “perpetuates and requires discrimination based on gender identity that is squarely prohibited by New York State law.”
Blakeman said he issued the ban to prevent transgender women and girls from gaining an unfair competitive advantage in sports. But he has been unable to cite an example of such an issue surfacing in his county.
“It is coming to Nassau County — it is coming to all communities,” Blakeman claimed last month.
A plaintiff in the federal lawsuit is the father of a female 16-year-old volleyball player who, the complaint claimed, could be subject to “risk of injury by a transgender girl” if transgender females are allowed to participate in girls’ youth sports.
In her Thursday opinion, Choudhury wrote that “there are no facts in the record showing that any specific cisgender woman or girl in Nassau County will face imminent injury in an athletic event involving a transgender woman or girl on Nassau County Parks property.”
Blakeman said in a statement that the ruling would not deter him “from protecting the integrity and fairness of women’s sports and the safety of its participants.”
“According to the logic of the decision on the temporary restraining order, the county would have to wait for a young girl to be paralyzed before taking action,” Blakeman added.
James did not immediately comment publicly on the ruling.
Republicans seem to see transgender bans as a winning political issue. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, the Republican who represents the southern half of Nassau County, has characterized Blakeman’s ban as a common-sense measure to protect women’s sports.
Democrats say the measures are cruel and potentially dangerous to vulnerable transgender children, who report distressingly high rates of depression and suicide attempts.
Responding to Blakeman’s ban after he issued it in February, Gov. Hochul, a Democrat, said in a statement that Long Island Republicans were “bullying trans kids.”
“There is nothing lower than trying to score cheap political points by putting a target on the backs of some of our state’s most vulnerable children,” Hochul added.
