Justice Department sues California over transgender student athletes

The Justice Department sued California on Wednesday over the state’s policy allowing transgender student athletes to compete on girls sports teams, contending it violates federal anti-discrimination laws.

The lawsuit intensifies an ongoing battle between California and President Donald Trump over the participation of transgender athletes in high school sports. Tensions have risen for months between the famously liberal state, which has repeatedly taken the administration to court on issues ranging from research funding cuts to tariffs, and Trump, who has vowed to crack down on transgender rights.

“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,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi, referencing a controversial comment Gov. Gavin Newsom made on his podcast in March. “But not only is it ‘deeply unfair,’ it is also illegal under federal law.”

A spokesperson for the governor’s office said the state is following an existing law signed in 2013 by Gov. Jerry Brown that explicitly protects the rights of transgender students to compete on teams that match their gender identity.

The Justice Department started an investigation in May to determine whether that law violates Title IX — a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination.

“No court has adopted the interpretation of Title IX advanced by the federal government,” the governor’s office said in a statement punctuated in all caps. “Neither the governor, nor they, get to wave a magic wand and override it — unlike Donald Trump, California follows the law.”

Both the California Interscholastic Federation — the state’s governing body for high school athletics — and the California Department of Education declined to comment.

Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a statement that his office “remains committed” to defending and upholding California laws and the rights of all students.

At California’s state track meet in late May, AB Hernandez — an openly transgender girl from Jurupa Valley — posted the top marks in the girls’ triple jump and high jump. Under rules enacted days prior, she shared first place with the girls who reached the second-farthest distance. The rule changes came after Trump threatened to pull federal funding from the state if she was allowed to participate.

At the college level, transgender San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming became a target of Trump’s presidential campaign last fall for her participation on the Spartans’ women’s team. The school is currently under a federal investigation over a potential civil rights violation for allowing a transgender athlete to compete on a women’s team.

The Trump administration also started an investigation into the state education department over its policies on transgender athletes in February and an investigation in April into the high school sports governing group known as CIF.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education determined both agencies violated Title IX by “allowing males in girls’ sports and intimate spaces.” The Trump administration gave California 10 days to resolve the violation by forbidding transgender athletes from sports for girls and women, restoring records and awards to those who lost to transgender athletes and issuing personalized letters to female athletes apologizing for allowing their “educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination.”

California’s education department notified the U.S. Department of Education Monday that the department and CIF would not comply with the Trump administration’s demands.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit — filed in federal court in Los Angeles — seeks a permanent injunction directing California CIF member schools to prohibit the participation of transgender athletes in female sports. The lawsuit also seeks to implement a monitoring and enforcement system to ensure compliance and to compensate athletes who “have been denied equal athletic opportunities” due to the state’s alleged violations. It also seeks unspecified damages.

Sophia Lorey, outreach director for the California Family Council, a conservative advocacy group focused on pro-family policies and religious freedom, praised the lawsuit.

“As a former athlete in California, I’m incredibly grateful the DOJ is stepping in to protect girls’ sports,” Lorey said. “Too many female athletes have been forced to compete against males, losing opportunities, titles and privacy.”

But LGBTQ+ advocacy groups said the lawsuit openly discriminates against transgender students.

“Transgender youth are not a threat but they continue to be targeted by the Trump administration in a coordinated campaign of hate and misinformation,” said Tony Hoang, the executive director of Equality California, a statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization.

The lawsuit says California’s federal education funding from the U.S. Department of Education totals $44.3 billion for the 2025 fiscal year, of which $3.8 billion remains “available for drawdown” by the state’s education department. The agency did not respond to a question about how it determined that amount. California said it received about $8 billion in federal funding for K-12 education and about $7 billion in federal funding for higher education in 2024.

“California is on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history,” said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California. “California must comply with Title IX and end its civil rights violations against women.”

In April, the Trump administration sued Maine for not complying with the federal government’s ban on transgender athletes in female sports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture subsequently froze funding for school nutrition services, but it was restored by a federal court and the agency settled with Maine in May.

Shannon Minter, legal director at the San Francisco-based National Center for LGBTQ Rights, said he was confident California would also succeed.

“This is really about much more than sports. This is part and parcel of this administration’s attack on public education and attempt to have the federal government…tell California and other states how to run their schools in ways that will be very destructive to our public education system,” Minter said. “It’s so hurtful to (kids) to see the president, the federal government openly attacking them. They’re just kids.”

_____

Michael Nowels and Darren Sabedra contributed reporting.

_____