In February of this year, Nassau County in Long Island, New York banned males from participating in girls' and women's sports. While many supported the move, protests broke out on the left and lawsuits were filed. On Friday, a judge on the state Supreme Court struck down the rule. This led to celebrations among trans activists, including New York Attorney General Letitia James. But those celebrations may turn out to be a bit premature. A closer reading of the ruling reveals that Judge Francis Ricigliano did not rule that the ban couldn't be enacted. Instead, he determined that the County Executive had committed a procedural error when putting the rule in place. If that error is corrected, the ban could still move forward. (Washington Examiner)

The New York Supreme Court struck down a directive from Long Island’s Nassau County that banned transgender women from participating in girls’ and women’s athletics at county parks.

Judge Francis Ricigliano ruled Friday that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman (R-NY) 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.

Blakeman will appeal the decision.

The ban only affected sporting events being held at county parks and athletic facilities, not across the entire state. That would never happen in New York with Kathy Hochul as the Governor and the Democrat-controlled state legislature. The problem that the judge found was based on the fact that the County Executive enacted the ban via an executive order. The court determined that Bruce Blakeman lacked the authority to issue such an order without the county legislature providing him with such authority.

Blakeman disagreed, claiming that the plaintiffs had already recognized his right to issue the order. He plans to appeal the ruling. That may or may not succeed, but there seems to be an easier way to address this. Why not have the county legislature consider the matter independently and hold a vote enacting the same ban? It's not as if the County Executive would turn around attempt to stop it.

Speaking of the plaintiffs, the suit was brought on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels. That's a roller derby league that uses county facilities to host their games. The league has transgender members who have been participating against the women. I'm not exactly a roller derby aficionado, but I've seen enough of it to know that the sport is very physical and aggressively competitive at times. Given the natural advantages that males have over females in physically combative sports, banning males from the women's division seems like it should be a no-brainer, no matter how they "identify."

Sadly, no matter how the situation in Long Island is resolved, this is yet another case of the courts ducking the fundamental, underlying questions. What is a woman? Does natural, biological gender still have any meaning in society or are we just going to collectively throw medical science and common sense out the window? We're still waiting to hear the vaunted "women's rights" movement weigh in on this, particularly when it comes to girls and women's sports. Nobody aside from Riley Gaines and a few others seems to be talking about it. If you are truly dedicated to women's rights, those concerns should extend to female athletes. It doesn't appear that you'll be getting any relief from the courts any time soon.