The Department of Education announced this week it was investigating the California Interscholastic Federation, which overlooks more than 1,500 high schools, for declaring it would disregard Trump’s recent executive order titled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports. 

Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor warned the CIF to abide by federal law in a statement that cautioned “history does not look kindly on entities and states that actively opposed the enforcement of federal civil rights laws that protect women and girls from discrimination and harassment.” 

The news came as Trump’s executive order has seen legal challenges already from transgender students in New Hampshire. 

“The chance to try out for tennis means new teammates, new friends, and a sense of fun and belonging,” said Iris, one of the teenage plaintiffs in the New Hampshire lawsuit. “I just want the same opportunities as other girls at my school.”

Similarly to California’s CIF, the Minnesota State High School League released a public statement following Trump’s executive order declaring that “participation and eligibility of transgender student-athletes is determined by state law, through the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the Minnesota Constitution.”

Trainor said Wednesday the Education Department is investigating Minnesota as well for Title IX violations.

California Republicans have celebrated the Education Department’s investigation, arguing that Trump’s new executive order seeks to create a level playing field in women’s sports. 

Sophia Lorey, a former college athlete under the CIF who is now an outreach director for California Family Council, said, “As a 4-year CIF Varsity Athlete and a 3-year Captain, I have been fighting for all girls to have the same athletic opportunities I had.” 

“Title IX was meant to protect girls’ opportunities in sports, not erase them. CIF’s policies have undermined decades of hard-fought victories for female athletes, and it’s time for them to answer for the harm they’ve caused. CIF has ignored these injustices for too long, and we hope this investigation will finally force them to put the safety and fairness of girls over the feelings of confused boys,” Lorey continued in a press release.

Trump’s Feb. 5 executive action threatened to pull federal funding from states that allow biological men to play in women’s sports. The basis of the president’s directive stemmed from the administration’s interpretation of Title IX to protect female athletes on the basis of biological sex, in contradiction to California and Minnesota, where state laws extend protections to transgender women in sports on the basis of gender identity. 

California’s law code states that students “shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”

At the beginning of February, two teenage female athletes sued California over the law allowing transgender students to compete on girls-only teams. 

“AB 1266 undermines female athletes, forcing them to compete against biological males who hold undeniable physical advantages. This is not equality. This is an assault on fairness and safety,” a spokesperson for the legal firm representing students told Fox News Digital. 

Title IX was historically interpreted to issue protections to women based on their biological sex before the Biden administration reinterpreted the prohibition on sex discrimination. In 2024, former President Joe Biden’s Education Department expanded Title IX to include a new prohibition on discriminating against a person’s “gender identity,” which resulted in a number of legal challenges against the new policy. 

In early January, just before Trump took office, a federal judge in Kentucky issued the latest order blocking the Biden administration’s reinterpretation of Title IX. U.S. District Chief Judge Danny Reeves’s court order said the Education Department exceeded its authority in issuing the revised Title IX policy and accused the Biden administration of “turning Title IX on its head.”