Hochul is slated to attend as a guest of Rep. Adriano Espaillat, a Manhattan-Bronx Democrat. Last year, Espaillat brought Mayor Adams as his guest to the State of the Union.

In a statement, the governor said much in New York hinges on federal action, including “addressing immigration and border security” after Republicans upended a bipartisan deal to secure the southwestern border.

Hochul apparently would be the first sitting New York governor to attend a State of the Union speech since at least the early ’80s. She is the first woman to serve as New York’s governor, and Espaillat said he thought it would be fitting to bring her at the start of Women’s History Month.

“She also has been a strong visionary for the state,” Espaillat said by phone, praising her work to help secure federal funding for families.

Hochul, a Democrat, has fostered a warm public relationship with Biden, and she is set to serve as one of his campaign surrogates in his expected general election race with Donald Trump.

Though she has at times directed public criticism toward the White House over the city’s migrant crisis, she has had a far gentler touch than Adams on the issue.

The Democratic mayor was removed from the president’s surrogate squad last year after saying Biden had “failed” New York.

The State of the Union offers a chance for the 81-year-old president to turn popular perceptions as he tilts into campaign mode and tries to dispel widespread concern that he is too old for another term.

Polls show Trump leading Biden.

New York politicians sent an array of messages through their State of the Union guests.

Rep. Tom Suozzi, the Democrat who won a special election on Long Island last month, invited the parents of Omer Neutra, a member of the Israeli Army who was taken hostage in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks and remains missing.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, an Albany Democrat, invited Billie Jean King, the trailblazing tennis legend.

And Sen. Chuck Schumer of Brooklyn, the Democratic majority leader, invited a 25-year-old Ukrainian soldier who lost one of his legs below the knee after he was injured by a landmine. The soldier came to New York City this winter for medical treatment.

Schumer said he hoped the presence of the soldier, Andrii Chevozorov, would bring attention to the need for American weapons and equipment in Ukraine, which is losing ground to Russia’s invasion. 

Legislation to provide more U.S. aid to Ukraine has been held up by House Republicans.

Schumer told the Daily News he was bringing Chevozorov to “make a point” to the Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

“If he doesn’t put the bill on the floor, he will regret it next year and the year after,” Schumer said, warning of the Ukrainians’ plight. “One of the American leaders told me that if we don’t give them armaments, Russian tanks could be at the border of Poland in a year.”

Chevozorov is expected to wear his uniform to the speech.

The lawsuit, filed by Nassau County in federal court on Tuesday, marks a major escalation in a public battle between the county’s Republican executive, Bruce Blakeman, and the Democratic state attorney general over the transgender sports ban.

Last week, James issued a statement threatening legal action against the county over the order, declaring it “transphobic and blatantly illegal” and instructing Blakeman to “immediately rescind” it. Her office also penned a cease-and-desist letter to Nassau County.

But before James went to court, Blakeman sent the first legal shot, filing a 12-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York that said James’ cease-and-desist letter “violates the constitutional rights of biologically girls and women who are a federally recognized protected class.”

The complaint cited the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection, and argued the order conferred protections to women and girls seeking fairness in athletics. The reach of Blakeman’s order would be limited to county-run facilities.

The complaint seeks a declaratory judgement asserting that the county order is legal.

In a statement responding to the lawsuit, James’ office said: “Our laws protect New Yorkers from discrimination, and the office of the attorney general is committed to upholding those laws and protecting our communities.”

“This is not up for debate: the executive order is illegal, and it will not stand in New York,” said the statement.

Because James’ actions had been limited to a cease-and-desist letter and a press statement, it was not clear that Blakeman’s complaint had presented a controversy demanding intervention by the courts, said John Barrett, a constitutional law professor at St. John’s University.

“The jurisdiction of the court begins with actual cases and controversies,” Barrett said. “This complaint may be more in the nature of a press release or a political position than a serious commencement of litigation.”

A plaintiff in the 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.

When Blakeman announced the ban two weeks ago, he could not cite for reporters any examples of transgender women or girls creating competitive disadvantages in athletics in Nassau County.

Blakeman said the county wanted to “get ahead of the curve.”

At a news conference Wednesday, Blakeman added: “It is coming to Nassau County — it is coming to all communities.”

He said courts have held that the “government can take appropriate, reasonable legal action to protect the citizens even if the harm has not actually been done yet.”

Gov. Hochul, a Democrat, issued a statement last month saying that Blakeman was seeking to “score cheap political points by putting a target on the backs of some of our state’s most vulnerable children.”

Barrett said the lack of concrete examples of harm in Nassau County’s lawsuit could hinder it by raising a question of legal standing.

“All of this is pretty abstract, and that kind of imaginary non-actual, non-concrete injury interest is usually a constitutional problem,” Barrett said. “It’s usually a basis for a court to conclude: We don’t have judicial power here.”

Susan Hazeldean, a Brooklyn Law School professor, agreed that Nassau County had not been harmed. She said she did not see a legal basis for the claim and that it appeared to be aimed at getting positive publicity.

But Hazeldean added that the state may not seek to dismiss Nassau County’s lawsuit. Instead, the complaint may simply serve as a starting gun for arguments in court about the ban’s legality.

“Presumably the State of New York believes that the executive order is unlawful and wants to see it enjoined,” the professor said. “I assume they’re going to want to make that clear to the court.”

As of 11:13 p.m., Trump had won 12 states on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. Biden had picked up 14 Super Tuesday victories. There were more than 2,000 delegates up for grabs across the two parties.

Trump has steamrolled through the GOP primary, and is seeking to push his lone remaining rival, Nikki Haley, out the race. She had not spoken publicly about Tuesday’s results and did not have a public election night party.

She did score one surprise victory Tuesday, knocking off Trump in Vermont, according to The AP.

A win by Haley in any state would mark a major upset, but the Vermont victory did not change the trajectory of the race. Haley was seeking to score enough delegates to forestall Trump’s national primary victory, which could come as soon as next week. The longer Haley remains in the race, the more resources the Trump campaign must expend on the primary. It is unclear if Haley would endorse Trump if she drops out in the coming days.

Despite the Vermont drama, the broader Super Tuesday results confirmed the expectation going into the day: Biden and Trump are on the cusp of a rerun of the 2020 election.

In the Democratic primary, Biden has had to fend off protest votes from some Americans upset with his handling of Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza.

Biden said the Super Tuesday results crystallized the choice America faces.

“Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office?” Biden said in a statement late Tuesday, asserting that Trump is “driven by grievance and grift, focused on his own revenge and retribution, not the American people.”

11:13 pm: Biden and Trump win California 

The delegate-rich Golden State went the way of most of the rest of the map on Tuesday, with Biden and Trump both emerging victors, according to The AP.

11 pm: Biden loses American Samoa

Jason Palmer, a Baltimore resident who campaigned by Zoom call, beat Biden in the tiny Pacific territory of American Samoa, hauling in a reported 51 caucus votes, according to The AP.

10:45 pm: Nikki Haley beats Trump in Vermont

Nikki Haley salvaged a win over Trump in Vermont, The AP projected.

Haley edged out Trump by a narrow margin by rolling up a 3-1 win in Burlington, the biggest city in the deep-blue state.

It’s Haley’s second victory of the nomination quest after a win in the Washington, D.C., primary.

10:30 pm: Trump trashes Biden in Super Tuesday victory speech

Trump celebrated his win by trashing President Biden as he looked ahead to a near-certain general election rematch against the man who beat him in 2020.

“He’s the worst president in the history of our country,” Trump said. “It’s sad to see what’s happening.”

The former president slammed Biden in a rambling speech for mishandling the economy and the situation at the southern border.

“Our country is very divided,” Trump said. “In some ways we’re a Third World country.”

“This is the worst invasion. No country has ever seen anything like it,” he added.

Trump promised a crowd of supporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate that he would win back the White House.

“We’re going to take back our country,” Trump vowed.

9:24: Biden and Trump win Minnesota

The Associated Press said Biden and Trump took home victories in Minnesota. Trump has now won 10 states so far this evening.

9:09 pm: Biden and Trump pick up delegates in Colorado

In Colorado, Biden and Trump both won, according to the Associated Press. The state’s top court had knocked Trump off the ballot, but was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s the westernmost state called so far.

9 pm: Vermont’s GOP race too close to call

In the only competitive state so far, the Republican race in Vermont was too close to call. Trump had a 2-point lead with about half the vote in, but most of the vote had not been reported in Burlington, Vermont’s largest city and the home of the flagship state university. Haley could score a large haul of votes from the city.

9 pm: Biden and Trump win Texas

Biden and Trump both notched victories in delegate-rich Texas, according to the Associated Press. The AP called the victories as soon as polls closed in West Texas. Shortly after, The AP also called Arkansas for Trump.

8:49 pm: Trump wins Massachusetts

The 45th president hit New England turbulence in Vermont, but Massachusetts — which has some Republican strongholds outside the Boston area — went for Trump, according to the Associated Press. The AP called the race with little of the vote counted, suggesting Haley was not competitive in the Bay State.

8:45 pm: Biden and Trump win Alabama; Biden wins Arkansas

The president and his predecessor scored wins in Alabama, according to the Associated Press. Biden also scored a quick AP victory call in Arkansas.

8:27 pm: Biden wins Massachusetts, Maine; Trump wins Maine

The Associated Press has called Massachusetts for both Trump and Biden. Trump also won Maine, The AP said.

8:16 pm: Trump and Biden win Oklahoma.

Both Trump and Biden picked up victories in the Sooner State, according to the Associated Press. Early results showed both candidates romping.

8:05 pm: Trump and Biden roll in Tennessee

Trump wins the Tennessee primary as expected with the Associated Press projecting him as the winner just after polls close.

Biden also won.

7:45 pm: Trump projected to win North Carolina

Trump is projected as the winner of the North Carolina Republican primary, according to the Associated Press.

Biden won the Democratic contest.

7:25 pm: Biden and Trump projected to win Virginia

Trump is projected by the Associated Press as the winner the Republican primary in Virginia. President Biden, meantime, has also won Virginia.

Trump was running up wide margins over Haley in Virginia, which was considered one of the former South Carolina governor’s best chances for an upset.

7:05 pm: No immediate calls for Trump in Virginia, Vermont

There was no immediate call of the Republican primaries in Virginia and Vermont by major networks as polls closed at 7 pm. The two states were considered among the best possibilities for Haley to pull off upsets of former Trump.

NBC News noted that Trump was leading in Virginia.

An immediate call for Trump in either state would have signaled a looming landslide over Haley in the remaining 13 primary states with results rolling in later Tuesday night.

6:50 pm: Haley has no public schedule

Haley’s schedule on Super Tuesday is a blank slate, raising questions about her future plans in the Republican presidential primary.

The former South Carolina governor has no events on her public schedule and did not respond to inquiries about whether she plans to speak after results are announced.

Haley has said she plans to stay in her long-shot race against Trump for as long as she can be “competitive.”

That sounds a lot less definitive than what Haley said about Super Tuesday in recent weeks, which was that she was 100% going to stay in the race until the biggest raft of primary states went to the polls.

5:50 pm: Biden wins Iowa’s Democratic race: The AP has called Iowa for Biden in the first primary result of the night. The election was held by mail beginning last month; Biden scored more than 90% of the vote, according to incomplete results.

Tuesday morning: Taylor Swift told her Instagram followers to vote in Super Tuesday states, but did not say who they should support. She endorsed Biden in 2020.

Taylor Swift urged members of her vast Instagram following to vote if they live in one of the 15 states holding primary elections for the presidency on Super Tuesday.

Swift did not endorse a candidate. She endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 general election that pitted him against Donald Trump. Biden and Trump seem to be marching toward a rematch in November, though both have nominal primary competition.

In an Instagram story, Swift instructed her more than 280 million followers on the platform to “make a plan to vote today.”

Swift, 34, was partially raised in Tennessee, which is one of the Super Tuesday states.

“I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power,” Swift said in white script against a dark backdrop.

“Whether you’re in Tennessee or somewhere else in the US, check your polling places and times at Vote.org,” Swift added, including a link to the nonpartisan Vote.org site.

It is a matter of debate whether celebrity endorsements typically carry much weight. But much has been made of the Biden campaign’s focus on scoring another endorsement from Swift, who is seen as the most popular musician in the U.S. and one of the most popular in history.

Explaining her support for Biden in 2020, Swift told V Magazine that the U.S. needed a president who understood that “people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included.”

Because Swift’s fandom skews young, Biden may especially crave her support right now. U.S. support for Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza has hurt his standing with many young voters.

Biden and Trump will need to clear their lopsided primary races to reach a rematch. At the moment, Biden trails Trump in the polls. Election Day for the general election is Nov. 5.

Swift, meanwhile, has an album due out April 19.

The survey, carried out in late February by Hart Research and financed by the American Federation of Teachers, showed 10% of neighbors supporting the state’s plan to shutter University Hospital at Downstate, a teaching hospital.

Overall, 54% of neighborhood respondents said they strongly opposed the plan, and 18% said they somewhat opposed it, according to poll results released by the labor union. The poll was conducted in nine zip codes around the hospital.

The poll’s release came as politicians and labor leaders rally to the cause of the medical center, which is located in the predominantly Black neighborhood of East Flatbush.The hospital is on the chopping block under a proposed transformation plan from Gov. Hochul’s administration.

“Central Brooklyn needs Downstate,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told reporters in a video briefing on Monday, adding that the community “wants to make sure this hospital is strengthened — not closed.”

Central Brooklyn has a shortage of quality health care options. A January state Health Department report said hospital quality is “generally low across Brooklyn and is lowest in communities with a large proportion of Black residents.”

The Downstate hospital houses the lone kidney transplant program in Brooklyn and one of two high-level perinatal care centers in the borough, according to the office of the local state senator, Zellnor Myrie, a Democrat.

Last week, Myrie and the Rev. Al Sharpton delivered impassioned speeches to a hundreds-strong rally in opposition to the planned closure.

The Downstate medical center sits across the street from the city-run Kings County Hospital Center. Some in-patient services offered by the state-run hospital would be moved into the city hospital under the state’s plan, according to a spokeswoman for the state university system.

The spokeswoman, Katie Blitz, issued a statement Monday saying, “We’ve heard from hundreds of community members about their concerns and aspirations around Downstate, and are working with the community to come up with a plan that will save this gem.”

But the statement also said the hospital’s “ongoing fiscal crisis and physical condition have put all of the inpatient, outpatient, and academic services Downstate currently provides at risk of catastrophic failure.”

Under the state’s plan, it is unclear if the kidney program and the perinatal care program would continue to be provided in East Flatbush, or moved elsewhere in Brooklyn.

The poll results published Monday surfaced concerns that services would decline if moved across the street. According to the data, 55% of respondents said they did not feel confident Kings County Hospital would provide good emergency room services if Downstate closes.

Black residents were especially concerned about the plan, according to the poll results: 77% said they opposed the state’s plan.

Weinstein, 71, is chairwoman of the Assembly’s Ways & Means Committee. She has served in the Assembly for more than four decades.

“I want to thank all of my constituents throughout the years for placing their confidence in me,” Weinstein, who represents neighborhoods such as Sheepshead Bay and Flatlands, said in a statement.

“It has been the greatest honor to serve as an Assembly member,” she added.

She was the first woman to head the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, a position she took in 1994. She later became the first female chair of the Ways & Means Committee.

Bespectacled and a lifelong Brooklynite, Weinstein has focused heavily on fighting domestic violence. With her planned retirement, she joins a wave of New York State lawmakers headed for the exits.

In an unsigned, 13-page majority opinion, the Supreme Court said that Congress, rather than the states, carries the responsibility of enforcing a constitutional provision — Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — that bars insurrectionists from returning to office.

Four justices signed on to opinions concurring with the outcome, but based on different justifications.

Read the opinions here:

The ruling from the conservative high court overrules orders removing Trump from ballots in three Democratic-leaning states: Colorado, Maine and Illinois. Courts in Colorado and Illinois had moved to remove Trump from their state’s ballots. An election official in Maine had sought to push Trump off the ballot there.

The decision, which came one day ahead of a slate of Super Tuesday primary elections from coast to coast, further cements Trump’s path to the Republican presidential nomination.

In an unsigned, 13-page majority opinion, the high court said that Congress, rather than the states, carries the responsibility of enforcing a constitutional provision that bars insurrectionists from returning to office. Four justices signed opinions concurring in the judgment but questioning whether enforcement of the provision should be confined to Congress.

On the fundamental question of whether Trump would be removed from Colorado’s ballot, the court ruled 9 to 0.

Shortly after the release of the decision, Trump wrote on social media: “BIG WIN FOR AMERICA!!!”

The ballot case had placed the conservative Supreme Court in an unprecedented and uncomfortable position: Forced to rule on an argument — viewed by some leading legal scholars as strong — that concludes Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack disqualifies him from serving as president and renders him ineligible for the ballot.

Colorado’s top court was convinced by the argument, finding in a 4-to-3 December decision that Trump’s connection to the Jan. 6 mayhem amounted to engagement in insurrection that prevents him from holding or running for the office of president again.

The Colorado ruling was built on Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, a provision enacted after the Civil War that bars officeholders who have taken an oath of office to uphold the Constitution from returning to office if they have engaged in “insurrection or rebellion.”

After the Colorado court ejected Trump from the state’s ballot, the move was repeated by Maine’s secretary of state for the ballot in the northern New England state, and by a circuit court judge in Illinois for the ballot in the deep-blue Land of Lincoln.

Judges and election officials in other states, including some Democratic strongholds such as New York, went the other way, leaving Trump on their ballots. To some, the idea of removing him from the ballot has seemed bizarre and antidemocratic, whatever the legal arguments.

The Supreme Court said in its unsigned majority opinion, “States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office.”

“But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” said the opinion, adding: “The judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court therefore cannot stand.”

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-to-3 conservative supermajority after key Trump appointments, has been viewed by the public as increasingly partisan as it has issued polarizing decisions ending the right to abortion and banning affirmative action in college admissions.

But in the ballot case, the court took pains to downplay its partisan divides. “All nine Members of the Court agree,” the majority opinion emphasized, referring to the outcome. “Our colleagues writing separately further agree with many of the reasons this opinion provides for reaching it.”

Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett filed a solo concurring opinion saying that she agreed that states lack the power to enforce Section 3 against a candidate for the presidency, but that she would not go so far as to say that Section 3 can only be applied through federal legislation.

“This suit was brought by Colorado voters under state law in state court,” she wrote. “It does not require us to address the complicated question whether federal legislation is the exclusive vehicle through which Section 3 can be enforced.”

Barrett’s position would not strip the federal courts of the power to enforce Section 3.

Still, she downplayed her disagreement with the majority, urging Americans to take from the decision the message that “our differences are far less important than our unanimity.”

The court’s three liberals — Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor — signed on to a separate opinion concurring with the judgment but echoing Barrett’s point in more strident language.

They wrote that the majority had decided “novel constitutional questions to insulate” themselves and Trump from “future controversy.”

“We cannot join an opinion that decides momentous and difficult issues unnecessarily, and we therefore concur only in the judgment,” the liberals wrote.

The court moved swiftly to produce the opinions in the case, Trump v. Anderson.

On Jan. 5, the court agreed to hear an appeal of the decision handed down in Colorado. In doing so, the court took on perhaps its most explosive election case since Bush v. Gore, the 5-to-4 ruling that effectively handed the White House to George W. Bush by halting a Florida recount in the 2000 election.

A ruling by the Supreme Court pushing Trump from the ballot could have set off an incendiary reaction from his fervent supporters, a reality that may have weighed on the court, which has three appointees of the former president but has sometimes ruled against him.

The case was sapped of much of its drama at oral arguments when members of the court’s liberal bloc voiced skepticism at the case for removing Trump from the ballot. Their remarks left little question about the direction of the case.

Addressing a lawyer for Colorado voters opposed to Trump’s eligibility, the liberal Kagan said: “I think that the question that you have to confront is why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States.”

“Why should a single state have the ability to make this determination not only for their own citizens, but for the rest of the nation?” she wondered aloud on Feb. 8.

New Yorkers are due to vote in the Republican presidential primary on April 2. Trump has been dominating this GOP election cycle, marching toward an expected general election rematch with President Biden, who trails Trump in the polls.

Addressing the crowd, Sharpton decried a dereliction of medical care in the predominantly Black neighborhood of East Flatbush, where the threatened hospital is located.

He called on the state to find funds to save the 342-bed medical center, University Hospital at Downstate, a teaching hospital. The center is on the chopping block under a proposed transformation plan from Gov. Hochul’s administration.

“Whatever needs to be done from the state to the federal level, needs to be done,” Sharpton thundered. “But we will not tolerate you shutting down Downstate!”

“If we don’t do our duty, people will suffer,” he added. “We don’t have much choices in central Brooklyn. So we choose to fight.”

The hospital houses the lone kidney transplant program in Brooklyn and one of two high-level perinatal care centers in the borough, according to the office of state Sen. Zellnor Myrie.

The Downstate medical center sits across the street from the city-run Kings County Hospital Center. Some in-patient services offered by the state-run hospital would be moved into the city hospital under the state’s plan, said Katie Blitz, a spokeswoman for the state university system.

But it is unclear if the kidney program and the perinatal care program would continue to be provided in East Flatbush.

A Hochul spokeswoman, Katy Zielinski, said in a statement that the governor has “committed $400 million to bring high-quality health care to residents.” It described Hochul as the “first governor to focus on the health care needs of Central Brooklyn.”

“At her direction, SUNY will continue to listen to the voices of residents as it finalizes plans to invest in and revitalize Downstate — not close it,” the statement said.

SUNY has launched a community input survey on the fate of the hospital.

But Myrie, a Democrat whose district includes the hospital, has expressed anguish over the path the state has headed down.

In a fiery speech Thursday, he vowed to prevent the closure of the hospital, citing high maternal mortality rates of Black women and subpar health care options in central Brooklyn.

“Our community has been under siege,” Myrie said. “If we have to hold 10 more rallies, we will hold 10 more rallies.”

Nationally, Black women are three times as likely as white women to die of a pregnancy-related cause, according to the federal government. A January state Health Department report said hospital quality is “generally low across Brooklyn and is lowest in communities with a large proportion of Black residents.”

Hofstra, Long Island’s largest private university, has fought publicly to derail the county’s efforts to bring a casino to the Nassau Coliseum, which is located at the school’s doorstep.

Nassau County, in turn, subpoenaed the university for private communications from the university’s president concerning the state-run downstate casino bidding process. On Thursday, the Republican-led county released screenshots of texts apparently from Hofstra’s president, Susan Poser, that it said showed evidence of the school’s collusion with the Queens bidder.

“How can we help him and vice versa??” Poser texted a consultant, Robert McBride, after he sent her a message with a New York Post story about Cohen’s casino bid, according to County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s office.

Another text instructed McBride to relay a message about a step Cohen could make to “appear gallant,” according to screenshots. It was not clear what the step was.

At a news conference at the Nassau Coliseum on Thursday, Blakeman said Hofstra’s behavior was “shameful” and asserted that the school had “lied to the public” about its role in the process.

Hofstra pushed back.

“The text messages shared by County Executive Blakeman reflect informal reactions to press articles with Hofstra University’s consultant,” the school said in a statement.

The compliance director for McBride’s firm, Timothy Hendrickson, said in an email that any “suggestion – directly, indirectly, or otherwise that McBride Consulting has engaged in any improper conduct is absolutely untrue.”

The texts were obtained after a Nassau County Supreme Court justice signed off Tuesday on an order requiring Hofstra to provide an array of communications requested by the county. The subpoena was not as broad as one Nassau County had obtained last month, according to court documents.

The Nassau Coliseum bid and the Citi Field bid are viewed as two possible leaders in a packed field of about 10 contestants seeking a coveted downstate casino license from New York State.

Bidders are expected to sign an agreement with an anti-collusion assurance: “No attempt has been made or will be made by the applicant to induce any other person or entity to submit or not to submit an application or supplement to an application for the purpose of restricting competition.”

The downstate casino bidding process is a zero-sum game. Only one brand new casino is expected to receive a permit from the state, so if Cohen were to win a license, it would presumably mean the Long Island bid would die.

Blakeman has said a casino would bring jobs and economic growth to his county.

Cohen, the billionaire owner of the New York Mets, did not immediately respond Thursday to the disclosure of the texts.

Steve Cohen

In January, Nassau County first publicly accused Hofstra of colluding with Hard Rock International, which has joined Cohen’s bid to put a casino at Citi Field. Hard Rock has rejected the claim.

Last month, Blakeman cited a Newsday column that described a different consultant, Michael McKeon, saying in an email to Cohen’s office that he would communicate with Hofstra on a matter. McKeon declined to comment Thursday.

A spokesman for Hard Rock, Jonathan Goldman, issued a statement last month saying that “Hard Rock has not had any communication whatsoever with Hofstra University or its President related to Nassau.”

Last April, Hofstra filed a lawsuit in Nassau County Supreme Court seeking to block the Long Island casino bid.

Hofstra said the County Planning Commission had denied the school sufficient opportunity to provide feedback on a proposed lease transfer for the coliseum site.

A judge sided with Hofstra in the fall, quashing the 99-year lease agreement and leaving the bid in limbo. Nassau has appealed the decision. 

“We are not deterred at all,” Blakeman said Thursday.

It is unclear if the half-century-old Nassau Coliseum, the 16,000-seat former home of the New York Islanders hockey team, would be demolished to make way for the casino. Las Vegas Sands, a deep-pocketed gambling giant, has pushed the Long Island bid.

A year ago, the state launched a high-stakes process to grant three $500 million downstate casino licenses to developers. Two licenses are expected to go to existing so-called racinos in Yonkers and southeast Queens with horse racing and digital betting, creating intense competition for the final license.