MINEOLA, New York — A New York appeals court on Wednesday, November 4, struck down Nassau County's law barring transgender girls and women from women's sports teams at county-run facilities, ruling that the county measure conflicts with the state's anti-discrimination laws. The unanimous decision by a four-judge panel of the Appellate Division, Second Department, reversed a lower-court ruling that had upheld the restrictions, and handed a victory to state Attorney General Letitia James and to a Long Island roller derby league that had challenged the law in parallel lawsuits, Bloomberg Law reported.

Source: Bloomberg Law, Nov 4, 2026

The panel held that Nassau's permit restrictions were preempted by the New York Human Rights Law and the Civil Rights Law. Announcing the result, Attorney General James's office quoted the ruling's core finding: the two state laws “expressly prohibit the County from restricting access to places of public accommodation based on a person's gender identity or expression, including whether the person identifies as transgender.” The appeals court directed the lower court to enter a judgment declaring the county measure invalid under the state Constitution and the Municipal Home Rule Law, Fox News reported.

Source: Fox News, Nov 4, 2026

What the county law actually did

The measure, Local Law No. 3-2024, worked through the county's permit system rather than through a direct ban on individual athletes. Any organisation seeking a permit for a sporting event at a county facility had to designate itself as male, female or coed based on biological sex at birth. A team designated for women or girls could not obtain a permit if it included transgender female competitors. Transgender athletes were not barred from every category: the county's position was that they could still play in male or coed competitions, an argument the county said protected safety and fairness in women's sports.

Source: Fox News, Nov 4, 2026

The practical reach was large. According to the Attorney General's office, the restrictions affected more than 100 county facilities across Nassau County, on Long Island just east of New York City — athletic fields, basketball and tennis courts, swimming pools and ice rinks used by school, amateur and community leagues, including leagues in the county's large South Asian and Punjabi communities, whose families use the same county parks and rinks for youth and amateur sport.

Source: New York Attorney General's Office, Nov 4, 2026

Two and a half years of legal ping-pong

The fight began in February 2024, when County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, imposed the policy by executive order. That May, a Nassau County Supreme Court judge struck the order down, finding that Blakeman lacked the authority to issue it on his own, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), which sued on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels, an adult women's roller derby league that welcomes transgender participants. The county legislature then passed the policy as a local law, Blakeman signed it on July 15, 2024, and Attorney General James sued the county that same month, arguing the law conflicted with state anti-discrimination law.

Source: NYCLU case history

For more than a year, the county was winning. In October 2025, State Supreme Court Justice R. Bruce Cozzens upheld the law, accepting the county's safety and fairness arguments and reasoning that transgender athletes could participate in coed leagues. Days later, however, the Second Department granted the Roller Rebels a preliminary injunction, blocking enforcement while the case continued. Wednesday's ruling goes further: it is a decision on the merits that declares the law itself invalid, not merely paused.

Source: Fox News, Nov 4, 2026

What the two sides said

“Transgender athletes have the right to play on the court, field, or roller rink like everyone else, and today the Second Department made clear that Nassau County cannot ban them,” Attorney General James said in a statement released by her office on November 4. Her office framed the case from the start as a civil-rights conflict between a county rule and statewide protections that Albany, not a county legislature, controls.

Source: New York Attorney General's Office, Nov 4, 2026

The county is not conceding. Nassau County Attorney Thomas Adams said the county is “reviewing the decision with the intention to continue the appeals process,” Fox News reported. The county has consistently argued that its law was a safety and fairness measure for women's and girls' sport, not discrimination — an argument the trial court accepted in 2025 and the appeals panel has now rejected as a matter of state law.

Source: Fox News, Nov 4, 2026

What happens next, and why it matters beyond Nassau

The immediate next step is mechanical: the trial court must now enter the judgment the appeals panel directed, formally declaring Local Law No. 3-2024 invalid. Trans-inclusive women's and girls' teams can again seek permits at the county's 100-plus facilities on the same terms as other teams. The county says it intends to keep appealing, which would take the case toward New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals — but unless a further court orders otherwise, Wednesday's ruling is the governing law in Nassau County.

Source: Fox News, Nov 4, 2026

The ruling also matters outside one county. It is now appellate authority that New York's Human Rights Law and Civil Rights Law override local rules that condition access to public facilities on gender identity — a precedent other New York counties and municipalities will have to reckon with if they consider similar measures, and one that leaves any change to Albany, the state capital, rather than to county halls. For now, in Nassau County, the permit desk — not a team's roster — is where this fight has ended.

Source: New York Attorney General's Office, Nov 4, 2026