Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the Trump administration is preparing to pull federal funding from California‘s education system in the latest escalation of the battle between the administration and California over allowing biological men who identify as women to compete in female sports.
“I think that is part of what we found with the state of California just blatantly refusing to be in compliance with Title IX regulations,” McMahon said at an event hosted by Bloomberg News. “So that is one of the tools and the other options that we have with California, and I think it’s right that we make them aware that that is a risk that they run.”
McMahon’s comments came the same day California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, accusing the Trump administration of forcing the state to break its laws that permit transgender athletes to compete in sports based on their gender identity.
“The President and his Administration are demanding that California school districts break the law and violate the Constitution — or face legal retaliation,” Bonta said in a statement. “They’re demanding that our schools discriminate against the students in their care and deny their constitutionally protected rights.”
On June 3, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon issued a letter to California, giving the state one week to “certify in writing” that it will uphold the Trump administration’s implementation of Title IX. Under President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” allowing male athletes to compete with female athletes would be a violation of the equal protection clause under the 14th Amendment.
“Knowingly depriving female students of athletic opportunities and benefits on the basis of their sex would constitute unconstitutional sex discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause,” Dhillon, who heads the DOJ Civil Rights Division, said in the letter. “Scientific evidence shows that upsetting the historical status quo and forcing girls to compete against males would deprive them of athletic opportunities and benefits because of their sex.”
On May 27, Trump made calls to withhold federal funding from California amid news that AB Hernandez, a biological man who identifies as female, was set to compete in California’s state final for track and field in the female division.
CALIFORNIA SUES DOJ IN BID TO KEEP BOYS IN GIRLS SPORTS
“A Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, large scale fines will be imposed!!!”
As California seeks to combat the Trump administration in allowing transgender athletes to compete with females, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has broken from his party, calling it “deeply unfair” to allow transgender athletes to compete in female sports.