The Justice Department on Wednesday said it is investigating whether a decade-old law in California violates federal laws against sex discrimination by allowing transgender student-athletes to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a news release<\/a>, the department said it had launched an inquiry into whether a 2013 state law, A.B. 1266, conflicts with Title IX, the landmark civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs that receive government funding. <\/p>\n President Trump and administration officials have argued the law bars transgender girls from competing on girls school sports teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday it had sent letters of legal notice to California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which governs high school sports in the state and the Jurupa Unified School District, where a 16-year-old transgender track-and-field athlete has for months been the target of protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We remain committed to defending and upholding California laws and all additional laws which ensure the rights of students, including transgender students, to be free from discrimination and harassment. We will continue to closely monitor the Trump Administration\u2019s actions in this space,” Bonta’s office said in a statement to The Hill.<\/p>\n Representatives for the CIF and the Jurupa Unified School District did not immediately\u00a0return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the state Department of Education said it cannot comment on\u00a0a pending investigation.<\/p>\n The inquiry, the DOJ said, will establish \u201cwhether California, its senior legal, educational, and athletic organizations, and the school district are engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination on the basis of sex.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTitle IX exists to protect women and girls in education.\u00a0It is perverse to allow males to compete against girls, invade their private spaces, and take their trophies,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon. \u201cThis Division will aggressively defend women\u2019s hard-fought rights to equal educational opportunities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n DOJ’s announcement comes one day after Trump publicly threatened<\/a> to withhold federal funding from California if it continued allowing transgender girls to play on girls sports teams in defiance of his February executive order<\/a> proclaiming the government opposes \u201cmale competitive participation in women\u2019s sports.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In a post on Truth Social<\/a> Tuesday morning, Trump railed against AB Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High School in Southern California who qualified for three state championship events at the CIF\u2019s Southern Section Masters meet on May 24.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTHIS IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS,\u201d Trump wrote in the post, which\u00a0does not refer to Hernandez by name. He ordered local authorities to block the student from competing in the state finals this weekend and said he planned to speak with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) about the issue, which he made central to his campaign\u2019s closing arguments last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Newsom said the governor received a call Tuesday afternoon from Trump but\u00a0could not take it because he was attending another event.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe hopes to speak with him soon,\u201d the spokesperson said. They declined to comment on DOJ\u2019s investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Newsom, a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has voiced some openness to limiting transgender athletes\u2019 participation in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said in the debut episode of his podcast, \u201cThis is Gavin Newsom,\u201d in March that he believes transgender girls in girls sports are \u201cdeeply unfair<\/a>.\u201d The following month, speaking to reporters in Modesto, Calif., Newsom said he would be \u201copen\u201d to a conversation about eligibility restrictions for transgender student-athletes if it were conducted \u201cin a way that\u2019s respectful and responsible and could find a kind of balance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s office said the governor was \u201cencouraged\u201d by a new CIF policy announced Tuesday that would allow more girls to compete<\/a> in the state\u2019s high school track-and-field championships this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n