Trump administration sues California to bar biological males from girls’ sports

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing California of engaging in illegal sex discrimination and endangering female athletes by letting biological males compete against them in girls’ scholastic sports.

The complaint alleging violations of Title IX, the federal civil rights law barring sex discrimination in education, was brought two days after state officials rejected a proposed resolution agreement that would have kept male-born athletes off girls’ athletic teams and out of their locker rooms.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi pointed out that California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the transgender-athlete situation “deeply unfair” in March, yet at least five biological males were allowed to participate in girls’ high school sports during the 2024-25 academic year.

“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,” Ms. 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.”

The California Interscholastic Federation’s transgender-eligibility bylaw was enacted to comply with Assembly Bill 1266, a 2013 state law that requires schools to permit transgender students to take part in activities based on gender identity, no matter their biological sex.

The lawsuit said Title IX supersedes state law, but at the heart of the debate is whether the federal civil-rights law bans discrimination based on gender identity as well as sex.

The Biden administration passed a rule last year that added gender identity to Title IX, but President Trump canceled the rule with his Feb. 5 executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” and his Jan. 20 order declaring that the federal government recognizes only two sexes.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a Wednesday statement that it “remains committed to defending and upholding California laws and the rights of all students, including transgender students, to be free from discrimination and harassment.”

Mr. Newsom is not a party to the lawsuit, but his office issued a statement described as the governor’s “personal opinion” defending the California law.

“CIF and the CDE are following state law – a law that was passed in 2013 and signed by Governor Jerry Brown in line with 21 other states,” said the statement. “NO COURT HAS ADOPTED THE INTERPRETATION OF TITLE IX ADVANCED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, AND NEITHER the Governor, nor THEY, get to wave a magic wand and override it – unlike Donald Trump, California follows the law.”

The statement referred to the Trump administration’s recent decision to freeze nearly $7 billion in federal education grants to states pending a review by the Department of Education.

“At a time when the Trump administration is withholding billions in funds for education, this ongoing attack is a cynical attempt to distract from the Trump administration’s defunding of nearly 3 million girls enrolled in California’s public school,” the governor’s office said.

Mr. Trump’s Feb. 5 order applied to educational institutions that receive federal funding. The U.S. Department of Education allocated $44.3 billion to the CDE in Fiscal Year 2025, about $3.8 billion of which has yet to be paid out.

“CDE has authority over CIF and local school districts’ interscholastic athletic policies, and CIF oversees 1.8 million students and over 750,000 student-athletes in grades 9 through 12,” said the Justice Department in a statement.

The five transgender athletes cited in the lawsuit were not mentioned by name, but based on the descriptions, “Student 1” refers to A.B. Hernandez, the Jurupa Valley High School junior who won two girls’ state track-and-field titles last month.

The outcry over the athlete’s participation in the girls’ field prompted the CIF to enact a “pilot program” that awarded qualifying slots and medals to any “biological female student-athlete” bumped by the transgender teen.

In doing so, the federation “acknowledged the inherent athletic advantage males have over ‘biological female[s]’ and that allowing males to compete in female athletic competitions displaces girls and denies girls equal athletic opportunities,” said the lawsuit.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said that “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,” she said. “Young women should not have to sacrifice their rights to compete for scholarships, opportunities, and awards on the altar of woke gender ideology.”