The US government sued California for allowing transgender students to participate in female sports, escalating a broad legal showdown between President
The suit seeks a permanent injunction barring participation by transgender girls in female sports in the state’s school system, which has more than 750,000 student-athletes. The Justice Department alleges the practice violates a federal law known as Title IX, which protects against sex-based discrimination in education.
The suit is part of a broad effort by Trump to roll back trans rights, including lifting workplace protections and banning trans Americans from the armed forces. The US Supreme Court this month agreed to
“Despite Title IX’s equal opportunity mandate, defendants have adopted and implemented policies that force girls to compete against boys — despite the real physiological differences between the sexes — if the boy asserts that he is a girl,” the Justice Department said in the suit, filed in federal court in Santa Ana.
The suit is also the latest legal clash between California and the Trump administration, which has deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles and criticized “sanctuary city” policies as part of a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration.
The suit was filed against the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees 1.8 million students.
The California Education Department declined to comment on pending litigation.
(Updates with California Department of Eduction declining to comment.)
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Anthony Aarons, Elizabeth Wasserman
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