BREAKING: California sues the Trump administration over the Justice Department’s claim that allowing trans girls to participate in girls sports is unconstitutional.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the head of DOJ's Civil Rights Division, made the claim in a June 2 letter to schools.

In the letter, Dhillon claimed, “The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. 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.”

She continued, “Scientific evidence shows that upsetting the historical status quo and forcing girls to compete against males would deprive them of athletic opportunities and benefits because of their sex. Therefore, you cannot implement a policy allowing males to compete alongside girls, because such a policy would deprive girls of athletic opportunities and benefits based solely on their biological sex, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.“

In response, the lawyers in California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office argued that the DOJ. defendants “seek to prevent California from protecting the right of transgender students—like all students—to participate in school athletics in accordance with their gender identity.”

As such, they continued, “This, in turn, (1) subjects transgender (and intersex) students to unlawful discrimination; (2) increases the risk that they will suffer severe physical, mental, emotional, or academic harm as a result of discrimination and exclusion; and (3) invites discrimination, harassment, and hostility into educational programs and activities, which undermine the social and emotional well-being of all students (and especially the well-being of transgender students).“

California is seeking a court order that California’s policy does not violate equal protection guarantees and that being forced to apply the policy expressed in Dhillon’s letter would violate equal protection guarantees.

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