a judge told the DOJ it cannot make California ban trans girls from sports

via The Advocate and The Oaklandside

Last summer the Justice Department sued California. The theory, from Harmeet Dhillon's civil rights division, was that the state Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation were violating Title IX by letting trans girls play on girls' teams, and that roughly $44 billion in federal education money could be pulled over it. The lawsuit landed in July 2025. On Monday, August 31, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Valenzuela dismissed it with prejudice, which is the legal way of saying do not come back with this.

the spending clause reasoning

The reasoning is dry and it matters. Under the Spending Clause, the federal government cannot punish a state for breaking a funding condition it never clearly set. Valenzuela found nothing in Title IX or its athletics regulations that told California, in advance, that it had to exclude trans athletes to keep the money. The Supreme Court's recent decision letting other states restrict trans athletes doesn't change that either. In her words, the court "upheld the biological-sex eligibility rules before it without holding that Title IX requires every school to adopt the same rule."

what it does not decide

Be precise about what this is not. The judge did not rule that Title IX protects trans kids' right to play. She ruled that federal law does not force every state to ban them, and that the DOJ cannot invent a condition after the fact and attach a $44 billion invoice to it. The national fight is not over. This one particular threat is.

Rainbow Families Action said the decision "lifts a significant shadow that has been hanging over the joyful and expanding success story of girls' and women's sports in California." The DOJ is reportedly weighing an appeal.

For now: the girls are still on the team, the money is still in the schools, and a federal judge has written down that the government's leverage was never real. Save the ruling. You will want to cite it at Thanksgiving.