The State of California sued the U.S. Department on Monday over its demand last week that local school districts ban transgender youths from competing in sports, arguing the federal agency had overstepped its authority in violation of both state and federal law.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the “pre-enforcement” lawsuit was filed “in anticipation of imminent legal retaliation against California’s school systems” for not complying with the agency’s directive by its Monday deadline, according to California attorney general Rob Bonta’s office, which is handling the litigation.
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The State of California sued the U.S. Department on Monday over its demand last week that local school districts ban transgender youths from competing in sports, arguing the federal agency had overstepped its authority in violation of both state and federal law.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the “pre-enforcement” lawsuit was filed “in anticipation of imminent legal retaliation against California’s school systems” for not complying with the agency’s directive by its Monday deadline, according to California attorney general Rob Bonta’s office, which is handling the litigation.
“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 said in a statement, as reported by the Times. “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 lawsuit comes a week after Harmeet Dhillon, Trump's assistant attorney general appointee and head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, sent a letter to school districts across California warning them that they faced potential “legal liability” if they did not “certify in writing” by Monday that they will break with California Interscholastic Federation rules and state law to ban transgender athletes from competition in their districts.
Related: Department of Justice Gives CIF One Week to Amend Trans Athlete Policy
Dhillon argued that allowing transgender athletes to compete “would deprive girls of athletic opportunities and benefits based solely on their biological sex,” in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
State superintendent of public instruction Tony Thurmond responded last week by saying in his own letter to schools that Dhillon’s warning carried no legal weight and that school districts were still obligated to follow state law, which requires transgender athletes be allowed to compete on teams based on their gender identity.
As reported by Kevin Rector and Howard Blume of the Times, the California Department of Education sent a letter to federal authorities Monday, informing them that California’s school districts are under no obligation to provide certifications to the Justice Department.
“There are no changes in law or circumstances that necessitate a new certification,” wrote general counsel Len Garfinkel. “Moreover, the DOJ letter references no law that would authorize the DOJ to require another ‘certification.’ ”
“All students — not just transgender students — benefit from inclusive school environments that are free from discrimination and harassment,” Garfinkel added, as reported by the Times. “When transgender students are treated equally, their mental health outcomes mirror those of their cisgender peers.”
Bonta’s lawsuit asks a federal court in Northern California to uphold the constitutionality of California’s anti-discrimination laws protecting transgender athletes, and to bar the Trump administration from withholding funds or taking other retaliatory actions against school districts that refuse to abide by the Trump directive, Rector and Blume reported.
"President Trump has said outright that he wants to cut federal funding to California over its laws allowing transgender athletes to compete in youth sports," the authors wrote. "The federal Justice Department has announced investigations into the state and the California Interscholastic Federation over its inclusive policies for transgender athletes."
Bonta’s office and other LGBTQ+ advocates argue that the exclusion of transgender girls is what constitutes illegal discrimination — and that courts, including the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which governs California and much of the American West, have agreed, Rector and Blume reported.
While Dhillon “purports that compliance with the Equal Protection Clause requires the categorical exclusion of transgender girls from girls’ sports, as courts have previously upheld, just the opposite is true: the Equal Protection Clause forbids such policies of total exclusion, as does California law,” Bonta’s office said, as reported by the Times.
State law that allows transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their identity “is squarely within the State’s authority to ensure all students are afforded the benefits of an inclusive school environment, including participation in school sports, and to prevent the serious harms that transgender students would suffer from a discriminatory, exclusionary policy.”
The CIF updated its rules to allow transgender competitors to qualify for state championships without excluding of any qualifying cisgender girls. The recent CIF track and field championships awarded medals for transgender victories as well as wins among cisgender competitors.
Related: CIF Changes HS State Track and Field Championship Rules Over Trans Athlete
"Supporters of the rule change said it eliminated concerns about cisgender girls losing opportunities to compete and win to transgender girls, but critics said the changes did not go far enough, and that transgender athletes needed to be fully banned from competition," Recort and Blume reported, adding that Dhillon’s letter demanding school districts certify that such bans were being implemented made no mention of the CIF’s rule change.
