The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it would begin an investigation into whether Title IX, a federal civil rights law, is violated by AB 1266, a California law that allows transgender women to participate in state school women’s sports teams.
The report has been sent to Attorney General Rob Bonta, the state superintendent of public leadership, the state organisation that oversees high school sports, and to California’s Governance Federation.
“The investigation is to determine whether senior law, education, athletics organizations and school districts in California are engaged in patterns or practices of discrimination based on gender,” the news release states.
The announcement comes a day after President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw federal funds from California on top of transgender high school track and field athletes who competed in the state finals over the weekend.
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In a post about Truth Society, Trump, 16-year-old Abu Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High School, won the women’s long jump and triple jump event at the California Interstate Federation’s Southern Section Master on May 24th, competing in the national championships on May 30-31st.
Hours after Trump’s announcement, the CIF announced changes aimed at ensuring that all student-athletes are capable of competing.
The new process allowed them to compete in the 2025 CIF State Athletics Championships and field championships “we won one next qualifying mark of the section’s automatic qualifying entry at the CIF State Championships and failed to achieve the CIF State’s massive mark in the final at the section tournament.”
“CIF values all student-athletes and continues to support its mission to provide students with opportunities to belong, connect and compete while adhering to California law and education code,” the organization said in a statement.
In February, Trump said “it is the US policy to oppose men’s competitive participation in women’s sports,” and signed an executive order that threatened to “retract all funds from education programs that deprive women and girls of fair movement opportunities.”
California is one of 22 states that have laws requiring transgender students to participate in sports that match their gender identity. The law was signed in 2013 by former Governor Jerry Brown.
The number of active trans student-athletes out of the 5.8 million students in the state’s K-12 public school system is estimated to be in single digits, according to the Newsom’s Office.
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