A federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging California’s policy of allowing transgender youth to play on sports teams that match their gender, a major loss for Donald Trump and the Department of Justice (DoJ).
The justice department had been fighting for a year to force California to ban trans girls from women’s sports, with the president directly singling out one trans track and field athlete in online attacks and regularly mocking trans athletes in his speeches.
Since ۲۰۱۳, California has allowed trans girls to play on girls’ teams in schools, an LGBTQ+-inclusive policy that impacted a small fraction of the state’s youth. More than ۲۰ states now have similar laws. California’s policy sparked minimal controversy for years until Republicans and anti-LGBTQ+ groups across the US made attacks on trans people a central part of their campaigns in recent election cycles.
In July ۲۰۲۵, the Trump administration sued California, alleging that its trans-inclusive sports policies violated Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools. The lawsuit focused on five trans girls who played sports, accusing them of taking opportunities away from other girls. The DoJ argued California was obligated to ban trans girls from girls’ teams while the state’s schools received federal funding.
On Monday, US judge Cynthia Valenzuela issued a major victory for California and trans rights, with a final order dismissing the DoJ’s suit and terminating the case. The judge argued that the US government failed to give notice to the state that its federal funding was contingent on schools banning trans girls from sports. The ruling noted the federal government has repeatedly shifted its guidelines on this issue over the last decade.
Although Trump issued an executive order last year calling for trans girls to be blocked from girls’ sports, the judge said that order did not constitute clear notice to California that it would lose funding if it maintained trans-inclusive policies.
The ruling came two months after the US supreme court’s conservative supermajority upheld Republican-backed laws in West Virginia and Idaho that barred trans girls from girls’ teams. Valenzuela noted the supreme court decision was narrow, with the justices concluding that those states could maintain their anti-trans laws, without saying every school must adopt similar restrictions.
The supreme court’s ruling did not call for a national ban on trans youth athletes nor did it address the question of whether Title IX permits trans girls to play on girls’ teams.
A DoJ spokesperson said Tuesday it was “evaluating our options for appeal”, writing in an email: “We are disappointed by the Court’s order and remain committed to enforcing President Trump’s agenda preventing boys from playing in girls’ sports.” The California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees school sports and was the target of the lawsuit, declined to comment.
California officials noted last year that out of the state’s nearly ۶ million students in the K-۱۲ public school system, it was estimated that there were fewer than ۱۰ trans student-athletes actively participating in sports.
But youth targeted by the lawsuit and the Trump administration’s policy attacks have said the impact has been severe, with out trans students facing harassment at games and death threats.
Rainbow Families Action, a California group supporting trans youth, celebrated the ruling, saying: “This lifts a significant shadow that has been hanging over the joyous and expanding success story of girls’ and women’s sports in California.”
The group said the ruling sent a clear message that schools across the state must allow trans youth to continue playing on the teams that match their gender, noting school districts had been facing pressure over the last year to “defy California law and to pass illegal and harmful policies that comply in advance with [Trump’s] discriminatory executive orders that hurt transgender children”.
Trevor Norcross, father of a trans youth athlete targeted by the DoJ lawsuit, said the ruling was an “acknowledgment that the Trump administration has been overreaching since the beginning of his term”. He said he hoped the decision would help support trans youth athletes across the country: “While this is a great victory in California … the fight is not over in other states.”
