YORBA LINDA, CALIFORNIA - MAY 10: AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley competes in the girls high jump during the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Track and Field preliminaries at Nathan Shapell Memorial Stadium at Yorba Linda High School on May 10, 2025 in Yorba Linda, California. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)
Washington D.C. – In a sharp escalation of the national debate over transgender rights in athletics, the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday issued a legal warning to California public schools, threatening lawsuits and the possible withdrawal of federal funds if they continue to allow transgender students to compete in high school sports under current rules.
The letter, authored by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon, contends that California’s longstanding policy permitting transgender athletes to compete in accordance with their gender identity violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Dhillon argued that the California Interscholastic Federation’s 2013 bylaw enabling trans inclusion in sports “deprive[s] [cisgender] girls of athletic opportunities” and relies on what she described as “scientific evidence” concerning physiological differences between the sexes. The letter categorically refers to transgender girls as “males,” a framing that signals the Justice Department’s broader legal and ideological stance under President Donald Trump.
The timing of the letter was no accident. It arrived just two days after AB Hernandez, a transgender student-athlete from Jurupa Valley High School, won first place in the high jump and triple jump events—and placed second in the long jump—at the California State Track and Field Championships, one of the most competitive youth meets in the country. The results quickly drew national attention, not only for their athletic merit, but also for their political reverberations.
President Trump, who has made the exclusion of trans women from women’s sports a cornerstone of his education and civil rights agenda, seized on the meet’s outcome. In a post on Truth Social, the former president threatened to impose “large scale fines” on the state of California. He also reiterated his February executive order, which directs federal agencies to withhold funds from schools that do not restrict athletic participation in girls’ and women’s sports to students assigned female at birth.
The California Department of Education, responding to the DOJ’s letter, said it would be issuing guidance to local school districts by Tuesday. A spokesperson indicated that the department is reviewing its legal options. Meanwhile, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which governs high school sports in the state, has not issued a public response, nor has the Jurupa Unified School District, which oversees Hernandez’s school.
Amid mounting pressure from federal authorities, CIF amended its rules last week in an attempt to address perceptions of unfairness without excluding transgender athletes. Under the revised policy, athletes who finish immediately behind a transgender competitor may now be awarded shared podium placements. The CIF implemented this policy at the state meet over the weekend, where Hernandez’s fellow competitors stood beside her on the podium, their placements elevated in recognition of the new guidelines.
Still, the Department of Justice’s actions indicate that such compromise may not satisfy the administration’s goals. The agency disclosed that it has joined an ongoing Department of Education investigation into California’s transgender sports policies and has directed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California to begin a review.
These moves come as part of a broader, multi-front legal strategy by the Trump administration to curtail trans inclusion in sports. In addition to the action in California, the administration has sued the state of Maine over similar policies and issued threats against Minnesota. Minnesota, in turn, filed a pre-emptive lawsuit challenging the administration’s authority to enforce the ban, setting the stage for a prolonged constitutional battle over the limits of federal power, civil rights, and state autonomy.
Despite the federal scrutiny, last weekend’s championship unfolded without disruption. For Hernandez, it marked her third year competing in high school athletics. Her performance, while exceptional in its own right, has now become a flashpoint in a national debate about fairness, identity, and who gets to belong on the playing field.
The Justice Department has given California one week to respond. Whether the courts will ultimately uphold the Trump administration’s reading of the Constitution—or California’s decade-long precedent of inclusion—remains unresolved. But what is clear is that school sports, once a largely local concern, have become yet another arena for the most polarizing debates of the political moment.
