US Sues California Over Its Refusal to Ban Transgender Athletes From Girls’ Sports

Updated 2 p.m. Wednesday

The Trump administration sued California on Wednesday over its policy permitting transgender high school athletes to participate on teams that match their gender identity.

The suit comes just days after the California Interscholastic Federation and the state’s Department of Education declined to sign a resolution agreeing to comply with the U.S. Department of Education’s push to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports.

The lawsuit alleges that by allowing transgender athletes to participate on girls’ sports teams, California is discriminating against women and girls, ignoring “undeniable biological differences.” According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the state’s policies violate Title IX, the landmark civil rights law that protects against discrimination based on sex in schools that receive federal funding.

“Girls are displaced from podiums, denied awards, and miss out on critical visibility for college scholarships and recognition,” the suit reads.

In a statement, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said the CIF and the state Education Department are following existing state law, which he said is in line with 21 other states’ laws and doesn’t violate Title IX.

“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,” Newsom’s office said via email. “Unlike Donald Trump, California follows the law.”

California state law requires public schools to allow students to participate in all school activities, including sports teams, that match their gender identity. Pushback against it, as well as similar legislation in other states, intensified during the 2024 presidential campaign, when opposition to transgender athletes’ participation in sports became a linchpin of Trump’s platform.

“Transgender youth are at the center of this administration’s cruel and discriminatory policies,” said Heron Greenesmith, deputy director of policy at the Transgender Law Center. “Their attempts at wielding Title IX against the very students it is supposed to protect is characteristic of a government that has no issues with continuing to attack an already marginalized group, push a harmful and misinformed narrative about transgender youth, and create confusing and hostile conditions for students and school[s].”

Shortly after Trump took office, he signed an executive order that sought to ban trans women from competing in women’s sports by rescinding federal funding from educational programs that didn’t comply. In February, his Department of Education launched an investigation into California’s Title IX compliance.

In June, the U.S. Department of Education’s investigation found that the state had violated regulations, and it also gave California an ultimatum requiring it to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports and apologize to female athletes who had lost to transgender competitors within 10 days. If the state refused to do so, the letter said, the U.S. Department of Education could move to withhold funding or refer the case to the Department of Justice.

CIF and the state Department of Education sent letters to the U.S. Department of Education declining to sign a resolution agreement on Monday, saying that they disagreed with its Office of Civil Rights’ analysis. CIF and the state Education Department declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

The suit filed Wednesday is the second such lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against a state that declined to comply with the federal order. It seeks to require California to ban transgender girls from competing in female sports in schools that receive federal funding and to provide compensation for athletes who the suit said have been denied equal athletic opportunities because of the state’s alleged Title IX violations.

Among the other states with laws like California’s is Maine, which the DOJ filed a similar suit against in April over its refusal to ban transgender athletes’ participation in sports.

Billions of dollars in federal funding could be at stake. According to the complaint, the U.S. Department of Education has allocated about $44.3 billion to California for fiscal year 2025, with about $3.8 billion of that still “available for drawdown … including both discretionary grants and formula grants.”

Attorneys for the DOJ specifically cite California’s high school track and field championships this year, at which a transgender athlete from Riverside County competed in the girls’ high jump, triple jump and long jump.

The athlete’s dominance in some of the events spurred controversy leading up to the meet, amplified by Trump when he threatened on Truth Social to withhold federal funding from California if it did not prohibit the athlete from competing in alignment with his executive order.

Hours later, CIF announced that it would pilot a first-of-its-kind entry process at the track and field competition that allowed an additional athlete to advance to the finals and place in events with a transgender competitor.

According to the DOJ’s lawsuit, CIF’s rule change allowed for an additional placement in the finals for a “biological female,” and in doing so “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.”

Throughout, the lawsuit also jabs at Newsom, who said in a March episode of his podcast “This is Gavin Newsom” that trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports was “deeply unfair.”

The complaint included an email CIF Executive Director Ronald Nocetti sent to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond following the podcast. In the email, Nocetti asked for clarification on the state policy on trans athletes, saying comments made by Newsom “increased the level of confusion and concern of the CIF and our member schools.”