Judge tosses federal women’s sports lawsuit versus California

A U.S. District Court judge this week issued a final order ending the Justice Department’s lawsuit against the California Department of Education and a state sports federation. The department announced the lawsuit in July, after concluding that California allowed male athletes to compete in women’s sports. Doing so violated protections against sex-based discrimination laid down in the landmark federal women’s rights law Title IX, the Justice Department argued. The department held that California needed to separate sports by sex because its schools received federal funding and needed to comply with Title IX.

Judge Cynthia Valenzuela didn’t evaluate whether discrimination occurred. Instead, she said that the Justice Department’s demands ran counter to legal precedent for interpreting the Constitution’s Spending Clause. Previous court decisions found that laws must provide clear notice of any conditions attached to federal funding, she said. While Title IX and other federal laws require equal treatment and permit sex-separated sports, they don’t explicitly require such separation, she said. Because the U.S. government’s interpretation of Title IX has changed under different presidents, the judge said the Trump administration’s recent guidelines on Title IX didn’t qualify as clear notice.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to WORLD’s request for information on whether it intended to appeal the ruling.