U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi
California state officials who claim a state law guaranteeing transgender biological male athletes the right to play in women's sports should trump federal civil rights law will be forced to defend that position in federal court, after the federal government sued the state of violating federal civil rights law by refusing to guarantee women's sports will be limited to biologically female contestants.
On July 9, the U.S. Justice Department under President Donald Trump filed suit in Los Angeles federal court against the California Education Department and the California Interscholastic Federation, accusing the organizations which, respectively, oversee the state's public high schools and high school athletics of violating Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls' sports.
“California is on the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of history,” said L.A.'s U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in a release announcing the lawsuit. “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.”
Essayli, a former Republican state legislator appointed to his current post by President Trump this year, was joined by statements from Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who oversees the DOJ's civil rights enforcement wing.
“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,” Bondi said. “But not only is it ‘deeply unfair,’ it is also illegal under federal law."
The lawsuit comes days after the California Education Department notified the Justice Department it would not sign a so-called resolution agreement yielding to the Trump administration's legal interpretation that Title IX does not allow states like California to determine who qualifies as a "woman" for the purposes of determining eligibility for women's sports.
The resolution agreement would have required California to prohibit biological males from participating in girls' athletic events, regardless of the gender with which those athletes may identify. The agreement would have further required the state to order its schools and the California Interscholastic Federation "to restore to female athletes all Individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions," and apologize to the female athletes allegedly wrongly denied their honors, records and other recognitions.
On social media, Dhillon said the DOJ would not the matter rest, and the DOJ then followed through on its threat to take further legal action against the state.
The lawsuit asserts the action is needed to protect the civil rights of female high school athletes in California, against whom the state has illegally discriminated by not giving girls a female-only space in which to compete, as the Justice Department says is required by Title IX of the federal Civil Rights Act.
"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. In the words of the Governor of California, it is 'deeply unfair' for girls to compete against boys," the DOJ said in its lawsuit.
"This discrimination is not only illegal and unfair but also demeaning, signaling to girls that their opportunities and achievements are secondary to accommodating boys. It 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."
In response to the lawsuit, California Gov. Gavin Newsom asserted on social media that the Trump administration's interpretation of Title IX runs counter to past court rulings. He further asserted the California Education Department and the California Interscholastic Association are only following a state law forbidding discrimination against transgender athletes.
The Interscholastic Association is not a California state government agency.
Newsom asserted he further has no control over the state's Education Department.
The state has not yet responded to the DOJ's new lawsuit in court.
