DOJ investigating California over transgender athletes law

The Hill

6 days ago

The Justice Department on Wednesday said it is investigating whether a near-decade-old law in California violates federal laws against sex discrimination by allowing transgender student-athletes to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.
In a news release, the department said it had launched an inquiry into whether a 2013 state law, A.B. 1266, conflicts with Title IX, the landmark civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs that receive government funding.
President Trump and administration officials have argued the law bars transgender girls from competing on girls' school sports teams.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday that it had sent letters of legal notice to California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which governs high school sports in the state and the Jurupa Unified School District, where a 16-year-old transgender track-and-field athlete has for months been the target of protests.
Representatives for Bonta, CIF and the Jurupa Unified School District did not immediately return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the state education department said it cannot comment on a pending investigation.
The inquiry, DOJ said, will establish 'whether California, its senior legal, educational, and athletic organizations, and the school district are engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination on the basis of sex.'
'Title IX exists to protect women and girls in education. It is perverse to allow males to compete against girls, invade their private spaces, and take their trophies,' said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon. 'This Division will aggressively defend women's hard-fought rights to equal educational opportunities.'
DOJ's announcement comes one day after Trump publicly threatened to withhold federal funding from California if it continued allowing transgender girls to play on girls' sports teams in defiance of his February executive order proclaiming the government opposes 'male competitive participation in women's sports.'
In a post on Truth Social Tuesday morning, Trump railed against AB Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High School in Southern California who qualified for three state championship events at the CIF's Southern Section Masters meet on May 24.
'THIS IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS,' Trump wrote in the post, which does not refer to Hernandez by name. He ordered local authorities to block the student from competing in the state finals this weekend and said he planned to speak with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) about the issue, which he made central to his campaign's closing arguments last year.
A spokesperson for Newsom said the governor received a call Tuesday afternoon from Trump but could not take it because he was attending another event.
'He hopes to speak with him soon,' the spokesperson said. They declined to comment on DOJ's investigation.
Newsom, a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has voiced some openness to limiting transgender athletes' participation in the state.
He said in the debut episode of his podcast, 'This is Gavin Newsom,' in March that he believes transgender girls in girls' sports are 'deeply unfair.' The following month, speaking to reporters in Modesto, Calif., Newsom said he would be 'open' to a conversation about eligibility restrictions for transgender student-athletes if it were conducted 'in a way that's respectful and responsible and could find a kind of balance.'
Newsom's office said the governor was 'encouraged' by a new CIF policy announced Tuesday that would allow more girls to compete in the state's high school track-and-field championships this month.
In a news release, CIF said it decided over the weekend to temporarily alter its competition rules to extend entry to 'any biological female student-athlete' who would have 'earned the next qualifying mark' in their event for the state finals in Clovis on May 30–31.
'The CIF believes this pilot entry process achieves the participation opportunities we seek to afford our student-athletes,' the group said. A spokesperson for the organization did not return a request for clarification about whether the policy change applies to all events or only to ones where a transgender girl qualified.
'CIF's proposed pilot is a reasonable, respectful way to navigate a complex issue without compromising competitive fairness — a model worth pursuing,' said Izzy Gardon, Newsom's communications director.
Tuesday's announcement from DOJ also comes as the department submitted a statement of interest in a lawsuit challenging AB 1266, signed by former California Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
Two teenage girls and their families sued California officials and their local school district last year after they were reprimanded for wearing shirts to school that read 'Save Girls' Sports' and 'It's Common Sense. XX ≠ XY' to protest the state's inclusion of transgender athletes.
The girls, who compete for their schools' girls' cross-country team and are represented by Advocates for Faith & Freedom, amended their complaint in January to challenge the law itself.
'At the core of the Title IX regulations is an abiding interest in creating opportunities for women and girls to enjoy equal athletic opportunities on a level playing,' the Justice Department wrote in its statement to the court on Wednesday. 'Allowing a biological male-transgender female to compete on a girls' cross-country team upsets that level playing field and interferes with the opportunity for girls to compete in a sport where mere seconds can mean the difference between wins and losses.'
Roughly half the country prohibits transgender athletes from competing on school sports teams that match their gender identity, though court rulings have blocked enforcement of laws in Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and West Virginia.
New transgender girls in New Hampshire expanded their legal challenge to the state's restrictions on trans athletes in February to include the Trump administration.