‘The President Means Business’: Trump Admin Sues California Over Transgender Athlete Policy

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it will sue the state of California for alleged violations of Title IX, in reference to keeping men out of women’s sports.

“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 Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. “Young women should not have to sacrifice their rights to compete for scholarships, opportunities, and awards on the altar of woke gender ideology.”

On Monday, California rejected the resolution agreement from the Trump administration to follow federal law and ban transgender-identifying males from competing athletically with females.

The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) aligned itself with the California Department of Education (CDE) and refused to sign the resolution agreement. The resolution was proposed on June 25, when the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the conclusion of its Title IX investigations into the state for allegations of discrimination against women and girls on the basis of sex.

Federal officials found that California was in clear violation of Title IX.

“As a result of the noncompliance finding, OCR has issued a proposed Resolution Agreement to CDE and CIF to resolve their Title IX violations,” the U.S. Department of Education said in a press release issued last month. “OCR has offered both entities an opportunity to voluntarily agree to change these unlawful practices within 10 days or risk imminent enforcement action, including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for proceedings.

In March, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, in a move widely regarded as an attempt to distance himself from his leftist record and position himself for a future presidential run, claimed on his podcast that he opposed men competing in women’s sports. When criticisms were made of a high school boy who had won a regional meet, Newsom responded, “I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair. I’m not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”

The lawsuit filed by the DOJ reportedly cited Newsom’s own words, that biological males competing in women’s sports was “deeply unfair.”

The Justice Department slammed policies that “eviscerate equal athletic opportunities for girls … they also require girls to share intimate spaces, such as locker rooms, with boys, causing a hostile educational environment that denies girls educational opportunities,” Fox News’s Dana Perino reported.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon stated to Perino, “We investigated this; the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education investigated. We told Governor Newsom that we’d be investigating these violations. We found California to be in violation of Title IX; we turned it over to the Justice Department, and they announced this morning that they were filing suit against California.”

“This is something President Trump campaigned on; his ‘Promises made, promises kept,” she said, adding, “It is the law. The president means business with it.”