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California filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department on Monday after officials demanded that the state’s public high schools confirm they will bar transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports.
The state said in its lawsuit that the Justice Department had “no right to make such a demand” and cited “no authority which would allow them to issue or enforce the Certification Demand Letter” to each local education agency.
California defended the laws that have come into question, which allow athletes to participate in sports “consistent with” their gender identity and doesn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The lawsuit said the state’s bylaws “do not classify or discriminate based on ’biological sex,’ do not require schools to ‘depriv[e] [cisgender] female students of athletic opportunities and benefits on the basis of their sex,’ and do not effectuate any differential treatment on the basis of sex.
“Instead, allowing athletic participation consistent with students’ gender identity is substantially related to the important government interests of affording all students the benefits of an inclusive school environment, including participation in school sports, and preventing the serious harms that transgender students would suffer from a discriminatory, exclusionary policy,” the lawsuit added.
The state requested an injunction from the demand letter.
Last week, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital that public school districts must “certify in writing” by June 9 that they will not abide by the California Interscholastic Federation’s gender identity rules.
“Knowingly depriving female students of athletic opportunities and benefits on the basis of their sex would constitute unconstitutional sex discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause,” Dhillon wrote in the letter.
President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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The California Interscholastic Federation governs public and private high school sports in the state and has a bylaw that requires its members to recognize gender identity in sports.
All students should be able to participate in school sports “in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records,” the bylaw states.
Dhillon, a former California-based conservative attorney, said the certifications she is seeking from the public school districts will “ensure compliance” with Title IX and help them to “avoid legal liability.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement the lawsuit was filed “in anticipation of imminent legal retaliation against California’s school systems” failing to adhere to Dhillon’s demand, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“The President and his Administration are demanding that California school districts break the law and violate the Constitution — or face legal retaliation. They’re demanding that our schools discriminate against the students in their care and deny their constitutionally protected rights,” Bonta wrote. “As we’ve proven time and again in court, just because the President disagrees with a law, that doesn’t make it any less of one.”
The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.
The DOJ previously filed a lawsuit against Maine after the state repeatedly thumbed its nose at President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep males out of girls’ and women’s sports.
Transgender athlete AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley High School poses with a gold medal at the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet in Moorpark, Calif., on May 24, 2025. (Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
The Justice Department accused Maine of “openly and defiantly flouting federal anti-discrimination law by enforcing policies that require girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions designated exclusively for girls.”
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The latest chapter in California between the state and the Trump administration came days after transgender athlete AB Hernandez won state championships in the girls’ division.
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
