The Department of Education on Wednesday launched Title IX probes into two high school athletic associations in Minnesota and California that announced their intent to violate President Donald Trump’s recent executive order banning men from competing in women’s sports.

The federal department’s Office for Civil Rights is leading the investigations into the Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation. Following Trump’s order, both organizations said they would abide by state law rather than defer to federal anti-discrimination policies when it comes to allowing male athletes to compete on women’s teams.

“The Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation are free to engage in all the meaningless virtue-signaling that they want, but at the end of the day they must abide by federal law,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.

State law in Minnesota and California allows athletes to participate on teams based on their personal gender identity instead of biological sex, which remains the basis for Title IX protections. Title IX, which doesn’t encompass gender identity, prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools.

State laws do not override federal anti-discrimination laws, the Education Department said. Therefore, the groups are subject to investigation.

“I would remind these organizations that history does not look kindly on entities and states that actively opposed the enforcement of federal civil rights laws that protect women and girls from discrimination and harassment,” Trainor added.

Trump’s executive order, which was issued on National Girls and Women in Sports Day last week, directed federal agencies to withhold funding from universities that allow male athletes to participate in women’s sports.

The order also allows women who are forced to compete against men to sue their schools and directs the Department of Homeland Security to deny the visa applications of foreign athletes who self-identify as the opposite sex to compete in the U.S. The restrictions will apply to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Trump’s directive marked a reversal of the Biden administration’s Title IX reinterpretation, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of “gender identity,” thereby allowing men who identify as women to access female competitions and spaces.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association changed its transgender participation policy in response to Trump’s executive order to bar men from competing in women’s sports, although the organization specified that male athletes can practice with female teams and receive “benefits such as medical care” while practicing.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration’s Education Department urged the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations to strip the various accolades and awards that male athletes have won when competing against female athletes and to return them to the girls or women.

In a bombshell study, the United Nations found that female athletes lost out on nearly 900 medals that were awarded to transgender-identifying men because of the significant biological advantages the men possess.

The Education Department’s civil rights office also launched investigations into San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for alleged Title IX violations last week.

San Jose State was the school where transgender-identifying volleyball player Blaire Fleming competed on the women’s team, which ultimately lost the Mountain West Conference championship in November. Many universities forfeited games against San Jose State because of Fleming’s inclusion in the women’s division.