Blakeman's transgender missive hits close to home

Daily Point

What would Joe Margiotta think?

A clearly defensive Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman got oddly personal about the Republican Long Island judge who voided Blakeman’s order barring transgender females from girls' and women's sports competitions at county parks and facilities.

On Friday, State Supreme Court Justice Francis Ricigliano wrote a matter-of-fact 13-page decision that voided the order simply because Blakeman “acted beyond the scope of his authority” in issuing it. That is, the county executive needed a “corresponding legislative enactment” — a measure from the Nassau County Legislature — to back it up.

Blakeman raised eyebrows Saturday by blaming a “lack of courage from a judge who didn’t want to decide the case on its merits.” He added: “Nassau County will appeal without much faith in the Appellate Division applying the law without far-left doctrine being used to undermine women’s sports.”

So who was Blakeman, a Hempstead Town councilman from 2015 to 2021, slamming for a “lack of courage”? Ricigliano is a cross-endorsed jurist who is married to the sister of Hempstead Town Clerk and former Town Supervisor Kate Murray.

Ricigliano’s party pedigree may be considered as strong or stronger than Blakeman’s. In 1963, the judge’s late father Michael joined the law firm that would later become Margiotta and Ricigliano — as in past county GOP leader Joe Margiotta.

Blakeman’s “courage” crack over the weekend did not seem to engender much respect among fellow Hempstead Republicans with whom The Point spoke on Monday. One said Blakeman is visibly “trying to become a Baby Trump” when he denounces a judge in a case he’s involved in.

The Republican added that Blakeman also skips over the fact that the Nassau Legislature has a Republican majority that might well have supported him on the subject. Instead, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Long Island Roller Rebels, a female roller derby team, so far have bested him in court.

Inside the Nassau-Hempstead party organization, at least Blakeman’s birth-gender order seems to be a more popular pose than the last attention-getter — establishing an emergency militia that nobody in law enforcement, nor any discernible swath of Nassau residents, was demanding.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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Quick Points

Even Cats thinks Rudy’s a bridge too far

• Rudy Giuliani was suspended from WABC radio and his talk show was canceled by station owner and colorful billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis. If you’re a conservative and you go too far for Catsimatidis, you’ve really gone too far.
• Only 6% of Long Island schools required to receive twice-a-year food safety inspections actually got the mandatory checks from the Nassau and Suffolk county health departments. Parents may have a beef about that.
• In a speech at a judicial conference, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas complained about a “lot of negativity” directed at him and his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas. Well, people tend to get negative when judges accept luxury gifts from billionaire friends and their spouses try to overturn legitimate presidential elections.
• Like an increasing number of Republican elected officials, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance said he will accept the results of the 2024 presidential election if they are “fair and free.” But like his peers, he won’t finish that sentence as electeds always used to: “Which I fully expect they will be.”
• Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to say that primary rival Nikki Haley is not under consideration to be his running mate. Glad that non-confusion got cleared up.
• Former national security adviser John Bolton blamed President Joe Biden for an “unprecedented” rift between the U.S. and Israel. Like Israel had nothing to do with it.
• He was an incomparable maker of B films and a vital mentor to Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Sylvester Stallone, Pam Grier, Ron Howard and other Hollywood luminaries. RIP, Roger Corman.

— Michael Dobie michael.dobie@newsday.com

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