The Trump administration has responded to California’s obstinately forcing men into women’s sports with a Title IX lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice.
The Department of Education has already found the California Department of Education (CDE) and California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) in violation of Title IX, but the entities have refused to comply with federal civil rights law in order to ensure the state can harm as many women as possible.
According to the DOJ, the CDE has authority over the CIF, which oversees more than 750,000 student-athletes and 1.8 million students between the 9th and 12th grades.
“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 Pam Bondi said in a Wednesday press release announcing the lawsuit. “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.”
California allows men to compete in women’s sports and intrude on women’s private facilities like restrooms and locker rooms, forcing females to undress in front of males. Since the Trump administration salvaged Title IX from the Biden administration’s predatory gender theory goals through executive orders, as well as a favorable court opinion, California is in direct contravention of Title IX for its “illegal sex discrimination against female student athletes,” the Department of Justice said.
“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 DOJ lawsuit states, adding that the policies “eviscerate equal athletic opportunities for girls … [and] they also require girls to share intimate spaces, such as locker rooms, with boys, causing a hostile educational environment that denies girls educational opportunities.”
The Department of Education’s 2025 fiscal year federal funding of the CDE is about $44.3 billion.
When the Department of Education found California in violation in late June, it issued a Resolution Agreement, which would have required the CDE and CIF to change its policies entirely, including forbidding males to compete against women in women’s only sports, as well as adopt an understanding of “male” and “female” based on biology, not bizarre political machinations like fealty to gender ideology.
“The inherent physiological differences between the two sexes generally make them not similarly situated in athletics. These physiological differences exist regardless of a person’s subjective ‘gender identity,’” the lawsuit states. “Because of these physiological differences, providing athletic teams, competitions, events, and intimate spaces for girls has long ensured that female student athletes are afforded an equal, and equally safe, opportunity to participate and effectively compete, and thereby to enjoy the same educational benefits from sports as boys.”
In addition, under the Resolution Agreement, California would have been required to send apology letters to each female athlete whose records and achievements were stolen by a male competing against them.
After California was given 10 days to comply, it became obstinate in its refusal to protect women and girls at school and rejected the Resolution Agreement.
“Title IX was enacted over half a century ago to protect women and girls from discrimination. The Justice Department will not stand for policies that deprive girls of their hard-earned athletic trophies and ignore their safety on the field and in private spaces,” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said. “Young women should not have to sacrifice their rights to compete for scholarships, opportunities, and awards on the altar of woke gender ideology.”
Breccan F. Thies is a correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.