The Trump Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division sued the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which oversees high school sports in the state, over what it said was a pattern of “illegal sex discrimination against female student athletes.”
According to reporting by The Hill, both state agencies have declined to bar male student-athletes from competing in line with their imagined “gender identity” despite repeated warnings from the White House and a personal threat from President Trump to the state’s “large scale federal funding.”
Investigations launched earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found both the state Education Department and the CIF in violation of Title IX, the federal law banning sex discrimination in schools that the Trump administration has said prohibits male athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
An executive order Trump signed in February states the U.S. opposes “male competitive participation in women’s sports” and that allowing transgender student-athletes to compete in female sports violates Title IX’s promise of equal athletic opportunity.
The lawsuit, filed in the Central District of California, alleges that California’s transgender athlete law violates Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans sex-based discrimination. It cites Gov. Gavin Newsom’s comment earlier this year that it was “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.
“The Governor of California has previously admitted that it is ‘deeply unfair’ to force women and girls to compete with men and boys in competitive sports,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “But not only is it ‘deeply unfair,’ it is also illegal under federal law. This Department of Justice will continue its fight to protect equal opportunities for women and girls in sports,” wrote Eric He in a post to POLITICO.
National Review’s Haley Strack reported the formal charges come after a weeks-long Office of Civil Rights investigation found California’s high school sports body, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), and the California Department of Education (CDE) in violation of Title IX. Federal authorities launched the investigation in May after learning that a male was allowed to compete in, and go on to win, multiple events at the state’s track-and-field championship meet.
“Title IX was enacted over half a century ago to protect women and girls from discrimination. The Justice Department will not stand for policies that deprive girls of their hard-earned athletic trophies and ignore their safety on the field and in private spaces,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said. “Young women should not have to sacrifice their rights to compete for scholarships, opportunities, and awards on the altar of woke gender ideology.”
Both the CIF and CDE rejected a resolution agreement from the Department of Education this week that would have banned men from women’s sports and intimate spaces. CDE “respectfully disagreed” with OCR’s analysis, and did not sign the proposed resolution, which also would have required California schools to acknowledge biology-based definitions of “male” and “female.”
California’s progressive and so-called inclusive policies “eviscerate equal athletic opportunities for girls . . . they also require girls to share intimate spaces, such as locker rooms, with boys, causing a hostile educational environment that denies girls educational opportunities,” the DOJ’s suit said according to Haley Strack’s reporting.
The suit seeks “declaratory, injunctive, and damages relief” and notes that the U.S. Department of Education has allocated $44.3 billion this fiscal year to the state’s education agency, of which $3.8 billion has yet to be distributed. It contends that funding recipients “must comply” with federal policy regardless of state law.
- California Governor Gavin Newsom
- Trump administration
- Title IX
- Women's sports
- Transgender athletes
- Harmeet K. Dillon
- Justice Department Civil Division
- Sex Discrimination
- Federal Funding
- Trump administration lawsuit
- Attorney General Pam Bondi
- California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)
- California Department of Education (CDE)
- biological definitions
