California sued the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday "in anticipation of imminent legal retaliation against California’s school systems" after the state guided its districts to allow transgender students to play on sports teams aligning with their gender identities, against the federal government's warnings.
The Justice Department last week sent a letter to California school districts saying they were “exposed to legal liability” after a transgender athlete won gold in a state high school girls' track and field championship late last month.
The Trump administration's letter required California districts to certify by June 9 that they were not allowing transgender students to play on teams aligning with their gender identities — which would violate a longstanding California state law requiring it.
The California lawsuit was filed by the June 9 deadline instead, after state Superintendent Tony Thurmond told districts that the state would respond to the administration on their behalf.
"DOJ assertions are not in themselves law, and the letter by itself cannot be an enforcement mechanism. The letter does not announce the passage of any new federal law,” said Superintendent Tony Thurmond last week in a letter to districts. “The DOJ letter references no law that would authorize the agency to require another ‘certification’ or one of this kind from LEAs [local education agencies].”
The lawsuit filed Monday by the state says that the Trump administration not only asked districts to violate existing state law but also the U.S. Constitution. The legal challenge hopes to prevent the administration from cutting schools off from federal funding or making funding conditional on complying with the Justice Department's requirements to exclude transgender students.
“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,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a Monday statement.
California's concern over the administration's retaliation comes after the Justice Department warned it could be next in a series of Title IX investigations into states and potentially lose its federal funding.
The administration is enforcing Title IX, the anti-sex discrimination statute, to exclude transgender students from playing on women’s and girls' sports teams, which it says deprives cisgender women and girls "of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”
In the administration's investigation into a similar policy in Maine, the Education Department initiated a Title IX investigation that found the state violated the law and led the Justice Department to sue the state for up to $864 million in federal funds.
The Education Department has since initiated a similar investigation into the California Interscholastic Federation, which recently changed its policy last month to allow more girls to compete after transgender athlete AB Hernandez qualified to compete in its state championships. Hernandez's first-place win, shared alongside cisgender athletes' wins, prompted the Justice Department's letter to California districts last week.
The Department of Justice does not comment on pending litigation, an agency spokesperson said.
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