The Trump administration is threatening California with steep fines and legal action days after a transgender athlete won two statewide high school track-and-field events, ramping up the legal threats aimed at the state over transgender issues.
The student, AB Hernandez, a transgender 16-year-old, won both the high school girls’ high jump and triple jump at a California state track meet on Saturday, after competing under new rules that allowed more girls to compete and medal in events in which Hernandez participated.
Before the competition, California Interscholastic Foundation, the state organization that runs the state’s high school sports, started a “pilot entry process” that allowed additional female students to participate in the championship meet. The new rules also resulted in Hernandez sharing the gold medal podium with two other students in a shared first place win in one event. The new policy only applied to events that Hernandez participated in.
However, in a letter sent Monday to California public school districts and the CIF, Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, called CIF policies allowing transgender athletes to compete “unconstitutional.” She alleged that “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” of the 14th Amendment.
Dhillon ordered the CIF to inform the Justice Department by June 9 that it will no longer implement a bylaw covering transgender athletes, alleging it violates the rights of female athletes.
The CIF rule criticized by Dhillon’s letter requires California public high schools to allow all students to participate in sports “in a manner that is consistent with their gender identities, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records.”
The letter does not mention Hernandez. But on Tuesday morning, President Trump singled out Hernandez in a post on Truth Social, his social media site, and said that “large scale fines” will be imposed on the state.
Last week, Bill Essayli, the acting top federal prosecutor in the Central District of California, also said he was launching an investigation into the foundation.
In an interview with the news outlet Capital & Main, Hernandez said that she is not worried about the criticism, both national and local, aimed at her.
“I’m still a child, you’re an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person,” Hernandez told the publication.
A spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that the office is “reviewing the letter and closely monitoring the Trump Administration’s actions in this space.”
“We’re very concerned with the Trump Administration’s ongoing threats to California schools and remain committed to defending and upholding California laws and all additional laws which ensure the rights of students — including transgender students — to be free from discrimination and harassment,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the CIF did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
Last month, the Justice Department announced that it was investigating California high school sports after it allowed the student to compete at the track and field championships. The Trump administration has already sued Maine over what it alleges is a violation of an executive order attempting to ban transgender women and girls from women’s sports.
Earlier this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to California warning of legal action if the state does not follow federal civil rights laws following Mr. Trump’s executive order in February opposing transgender athletes.
