Federal Justice Department Sues CA Over Allowing Trans Athletes to Compete with Cis Athletes

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of California Wednesday, warning that allowing transgender athletes to compete against biological females in high-school sports was putting billions of dollars in federal education funding at risk by continuing a practice the Trump administration contends is discriminatory, demeaning and violates civil rights law.

According to the complaint, filed in federal court in Santa Ana, California’s policies and practices “ignore undeniable biological differences between boys and girls, in favor of an amorphous `gender identity.’ The results of these illegal policies are stark: girls are displaced from podiums, denied awards, and miss out on critical visibility for college scholarships and recognition.”

The suit accuses the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation of engaging in illegal sex discrimination against female student athletes by allowing males to compete against them. The DOJ alleges the state’s policies deprive girls of the equal education and athletic opportunities afforded to them by federal law’s Title IX prohibition against sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.

“California is on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history,” U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California said in a statement. “Women deserve dignity, respect, and an equal opportunity to compete on their own sports teams. The time for talk is over. California must comply with Title IX and end its civil rights violations against women. No person, no state, is above the law.”

California officials deny the state’s policy is breaking the law. Earlier this week, the state refused demands by the Trump administration to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s school athletic teams.

The Attorney General’s Office issued a statement saying, “Our office remains committed to defending and upholding California laws and the rights of all students, including transgender students, to be free from discrimination and harassment.”

The suit says that the U.S. Department of Education’s allocation of funds to California for the current year totals nearly $44.3 billion, of which about $3.8 billion remains available for use by the state’s education department.

In June, President Donald Trump threatened California with possible fines and loss of federal education funds for allowing a transgender athlete from Jurupa Valley High School to compete in a state track and field meet.

“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. “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 DOJ contends that allowing transgender athletes to compete against biological females “is not only illegal and unfair but also demeaning, signaling to girls that their opportunities and achievements are secondary to accommodating boys.”

The federal government alleges that such competition “erodes the integrity of girls’ sports, diminishes their competitive experience, and undermines the very purpose of Title IX: to provide equal access to educational benefits, including interscholastic athletics.” Despite warnings from the U.S. Department of Education, the CDE and CIF “continue to require California schools to allow boys to compete against girls,” the complaint states.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon posted on X that “California won’t get away with allowing males to take girls’ athletic opportunities away.”

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, the lawsuit noted.

UC Irvine political science and legal professor Tony Smith said the lawsuit was a “distraction to get the public to stop talking about (the Jeffrey) Epstein files that were on Pam Bondi’s desk and now don’t exist.”

He downplayed the issue of transgender athletes given the number of them.

“We’re talking about a sliver of the population,” he said. “About 500,000 athletes are in the NCAA and about 15 are trans. So we’re not talking about a significant population.”

If the administration was sincerely worried about the safety of female athletes, he said, it would put more effort into checking the background of male coaches.

“If you want to see who’s harming girls in sports it’s males involved in the activities, not the trans athletes. That’s not who’s molesting them, raping them or harming them,” Smith said.

The lawsuit seems to have little merit, Smith argued.

“This is not something the Trump Justice Department cares about, meaning the rule of law,” Smith said. “But how far it will go depends on if it goes up the Supreme Court and we know what the answer there is. But if it is properly left up to the states to decide how to manage high school sports it’s probably fine.”