California pushes back against federal demand to bar transgender students from sport of choice

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — The California attorney general on Monday filed a legal end run against the Trump administration Monday, arguing the federal government has no power to make the Golden State stop transgender students from playing in their preferred sport.

The pre-enforcement suit, filed in the Northern District of California, is in response to the U.S. Department of Justice last week asking for assurances the state wouldn’t permit “public high schools to allow male participation in girls’ interscholastic athletics.” The government argues that allowing such participation would violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

“Therefore, you cannot implement a policy allowing males to compete alongside girls, because such a policy would deprive girls of athletic opportunities and benefits based solely on their biological sex, in violation of the equal protection clause,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a letter.

Federal officials wanted California by June 9 to assure them that it wouldn’t implement a state bylaw allowing that participation.

Instead, California returned the volley.

“The president and his administration are demanding that California school districts break the law and violate the Constitution — or face legal retaliation,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “They’re demanding that our schools discriminate against the students in their care and deny their constitutionally protected rights. 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.”

In the pre-enforcement suit, Bonta asks that a judge uphold the state’s anti-discrimination law. The state also wants the Trump administration prevented from withholding or placing conditions on federal funding over the issue.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined comment.

Bonta argued that complying with the federal government’s demands would violate the 14th Amendment, because the equal protection clause, instead of requiring the exclusion of transgender girls from girls’ athletics, in fact prohibits exclusionary rules. Bonta cited this as Ninth Court precedent and said California law does the same.

Additionally, allowing students to play in the sport consistent with their gender identity falls under state authority, Bonta said. California has the obligation to ensure students have an inclusive school environment, including sports, and to stop transgender students from being harmed by exclusion, he added.

According to Bonta, some 1.6 million Americans identify as transgender, or about 0.6% of people 13 and older.

One study found that 56% of transgender teens between 14 and 18 have reported trying to kill themselves, and 86% said they had suicidal thoughts, Bonta writes in his suit. That’s why inclusive policies for transgender youth are essential, he said.

“When schools do not affirm or accept transgender students’ gender identity, their risks of suicide increase significantly,” Bonta added.

Bonta argues that children on school sports teams experience depression and suicidal thoughts at a lower rate. Studies also have found potential connections between organized sports and better cognitive and academic outcomes in children.

“There is no evidence that a categorical bar on the prohibition of all transgender girls in girls’ sports promotes fair athletic competition or opportunity,” Bonta writes. “To the contrary, denying transgender youth an opportunity to participate in school-sponsored athletics subjects those youth to unlawful discrimination by denying them equal access to educational benefits.”

Bonta’s suit is the latest serve in a back-and-forth between the Trump administration and a Democratic-controlled supermajority state.

Trump has slammed Governor Gavin Newsom over the past few days over the protests in Los Angeles that broke out after federal immigration enforcement actions. Trump federalized the National Guard, a move Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass opposed. Newsom called it an illegal act.

Speaking to media Monday morning, Bonta said he’d file suit against the Trump administration over the issue and will ask a judge to set aside Trump’s move.