California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday for issuing a letter demanding that California’s public-school districts and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) revoke their allegedly “unconstitutional” trans-inclusion policies by June 9.

The letter was sent by Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, who California named as a defendant in its lawsuit. In her letter, Dhillon claims that the Equal Protection Clause in the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment “prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex” and that California’s trans-inclusive school sports policies and anti-discrimination statutes are “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”. 

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Despite this claim, the Equal Protection Clause has been successfully used to challenge laws and policies that discriminate against transgender individuals, including in the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bostock v. Clayton County ruling, which declared anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination as a form of sex–based discrimination.

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This legal precedent hurts the DOJ’s argument against California, especially since President Donald Trump has tried to separate sex and gender in Executive Order 14168, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which directed the federal government and federally funded organizations altogether to deny the existence of trans people and gender identity in favor of “biological sex” (ie. one’s sex assigned at birth).

California’s legal filing claims that compliance with the DOJ’s letter would require the state to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as California’s anti-discrimination laws.

“The [DOJ’s] Certification Demand Letter would require California and its LEAs [law enforcement agencies] to discriminate against transgender girls in K-12 school sports by categorically excluding them from girls’ sports,” Bonta wrote in his court filing. “This is a form of discrimination on the basis of sex, and would therefore violate both the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and section 221.5(f) of the California Education Code.”

The DOJ’s letter adds, “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.” 

“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,” Dhillon wrote.

Dhillon’s letter concludes by demanding that California’s schools and the CIF “certify in writing” that they will be in compliance with the demands and ban transgender athletes by 5 p.m. Monday, June 9, a deadline that has already passed.

On June 9, California filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Harmeet Dhillon in their official capacities. As part of the lawsuit, the state requested that the court implement an injunction upon the DOJ’s demand letter.

The letter itself comes after a 16-year-old transgender student from Jurupa Valley High School competed on the girl’s track team at a state track-and-field competition. Her involvement reached the attention of conservatives who scathed at the idea of a trans girl competing in girls’ sports.

President Donald Trump attacked her directly, labelling the teenagers’ participation as “not fair” and “demeaning to women and girls.” Trump is also threatening to withhold federal funding from public schools in California as a result.

In response to this, CIF issued a rule change allowing any cisgender female student-athletes to compete in the state championship if they would’ve qualified had a trans athlete not beaten them.

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