The Trump administration is widening its investigation into transgender athletes in California over claims the state is violating federal law by allowing them to compete in women’s sports.
The US Department of Education added the California Community College Athletic Association — which oversees 108 athletic programs statewide — to its existing investigation into trans athletes launched last year.
AB Hernandez, a transgender student at Jurupa Valley High School, warms up before the track and field championships in Clovis, Calif., in May 2025. AP“Women’s sports are for women,” said the department’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey. “The Trump administration will not tolerate policies that erase women’s rights.”
The move expands a growing list of California entities already under federal scrutiny, including the Jurupa Unified School District, Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, Santa Monica College, and Santa Rosa Junior College.
Transgender athlete Blaire Fleming of the San Jose State Spartans on court during a volleyball match against the Air Force Falcons in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2024. Getty Images
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom — despite admitting the truth on a podcast — continues to put ideology above the safety and fairness of his own students,” the Department of Education said in a statement.
The action comes as national attention has focused on transgender athlete AB Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High School in Southern California — one of the schools named in the investigation. Hernandez won gold in the high jump and triple jump events at the 2025 state track and field championships, earning silver in the long jump.
The Supreme Court is weighing cases involving state laws that bar transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. However, the court has not specified whether it would challenge states like California that allow transgender athletes to compete based on gender identity. Under California law, athletes are permitted to participate in school sports based on their gender identity, not their sex assigned at birth.
In June 2025, the US Department of Education concluded that the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation were in violation of Title IX, finding that state policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports unlawfully discriminated against female athletes.
Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court as it hears arguments over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams, on Jan. 13 in Washington, DC. Gent Shkullaku/ZUMA / SplashNews.com“Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in June 2025.
Mahon was referring to comments made by Newsom last year, when the Democratic governor signaled a notable shift in tone by calling it “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports. Newsom made the remarks on the debut episode of his podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom,” in a conversation with late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The US Department of Education has emphasized its commitment to enforcing the president’s policy aimed at protecting women’s sports. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 directing federal agencies to interpret Title IX as barring transgender girls and women from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams and authorizing the withholding of federal funding from schools and athletic programs that do not comply.
Nationwide, the Education Department’s investigations now span 18 school districts and colleges, according to federal officials.
