U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is warning three state attorneys general – including California's – they must comply with President Donald Trump's executive order on transgender girls and women's participation in female sports. The letter Bondi sent the trio of state officials is the latest escalation between the federal government and states that have policies allowing trans women and girls to play on female sports teams.
"This Department of Justice will defend women and does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law," Bondi stated in a February 25 news release. "We will leverage every legal option necessary to ensure state compliance with federal law and President Trump's executive order protecting women's sports."
The Bay Area Reporter reached out to the Justice Department for a copy of the letter but has not received it as of press time. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta stated to the B.A.R. February 26 that he is in receipt of the letter and will respond; the state office also has yet to provide a copy of Bondi's letter.
State law allows trans students to play on sports teams that align with their gender identity. Earlier this month, two families sued Bonta, a school district in Riverside County and other public officials over the law, as Fox News reported.
Minnesota human rights law also lets transgender athletes compete in sports consistent with their gender identity, which supersedes Trump's attempt to ban such state statutes, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told local media last week. The Democratic leader stated to the B.A.R. Wednesday that Bondi and Trump aren't correct in their interpretation of federal civil rights laws.
"I believe Attorney General Bondi and President Trump are wrong on the law, and I'm prepared to defend and uphold the law," Ellison stated. "But more than unlawful, I think it's morally wrong to persecute a small minority group, transgender youth, with the full weight of the U.S. Department of Justice just to express prejudice against a vulnerable and often persecuted group of students. I do not believe the best use of the Department of Justice's limited resources is to sue Minnesota over this."
The attorney general's office in Maine didn't return a request for comment by press time.
Trump got into it with Maine Governor Janet T. Mills (D) on the issue February 20 while he was meeting with governors. The president told her she needed to comply with his executive order on trans athletes or he'd withhold education funding to the Pine Tree State.
Mills said she would comply with state and federal law.
"We are the federal law," Trump shot back. "You'd better do it. You'd better do it, because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't."
"See you in court," Mills responded.
She later stated, "If the president attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of federal funding, my administration and the attorney general will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides. The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the president's threats."
The federal Education Department's office for civil rights announced an investigation of Maine schools the very next day.
"Maine would have you believe that it has no choice in how it treats women and girls in athletics – that is, that it must follow its state laws and allow male athletes to compete against women and girls," U.S. acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor stated in a news release. "Let me be clear: If Maine wants to continue to receive federal funds from the Education Department, it has to follow Title IX. If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample the rights of its young female athletes, that, too, is its choice. OCR will do everything in its power to ensure taxpayers are not funding blatant civil rights violators."
For her part, Mills said, "This is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a president can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot."
The Education Department had already announced February 12 an investigation of the California Interscholastic Federation – the state's governing body of high school sports – as a result of its current policies. Equality California, the statewide LGBTQ rights organization, defended the interscholastic federation, which has said it won't comply with Trump's order because it does not align with state law.
"This policy aligns with California law and the fundamental principles of fairness and inclusion," EQCA Executive Director Tony Hoang, a gay man, stated in a news release. "These protections have existed for years without issue and have allowed the small number of transgender athletes in California to play school sports alongside their teammates – just like everyone else.
"This federal investigation is another politically motivated attack and part of a broader effort to weaponize the government against transgender youth," he continued, referring to the Education Department. "It is a deliberate attempt to stigmatize and exclude transgender students as part of a coordinated agenda to erase transgender people from public life."
EQCA didn't immediately provide a comment for this report on the Bondi letter.
San Jose State University is also the target of a federal investigation by the Education Department for allowing a reported trans volleyball player on the women's team.
"We recognize that at times, these laws and policies may intersect in complex ways," SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson stated, according to a San Jose Inside report. "In navigating these frameworks, our focus remains on upholding our responsibilities while supporting our students."
As the B.A.R. previously reported, Trump signed an executive order February 5 titled "Keeping Men out of Women's Sports" to state it is U.S. policy to rescind all federal funds "from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women's sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth."
The president pledged, "If you let men take over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding."
The order interprets Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 – a landmark civil rights law – in light of Trump's day one executive order declaring that there are only two sexes determined "at conception."
In December, the Biden administration had already walked back its proposed policy on trans women in women's sports, which was an attempt to chart a middle course but that did not satisfy LGBTQ advocacy groups. The Biden administration proposal was that if a school refuses to allow a transgender student to play on a team that matched their gender identity, the refusal must be based on a need to "minimize harms" and "be substantially related to the achievement of an important educational objective."
But states like California have a policy that goes further than that. Guidelines about LGBTQ rights issued by Bonta's office state unequivocally, "You have the right to play on a sports team that aligns with your gender identity." It is also explicitly stated in the Golden State's education code that, "A pupil 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."
States also have Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), the U.S. Supreme Court ruling stating that the word "sex" in the Civil Rights Act applies to both sexual orientation and gender identity, to appeal to in the legal justification for their interpretation of civil rights statutes.
A 2025 New York Times/Ipsos survey showed, however, that the majority of Americans disagree with that; with 79% of poll respondents saying trans female athletes should only compete on sports that conform to their sex as assigned at birth. By party breakdown, this included 94% of Republicans, 67% of Democrats, and 64% of those in neither party. Half of U.S. states have laws banning trans students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.
And the issue has been a political winner for the GOP, with some national Democrats reassessing their views on the matter in the wake of Trump's win last fall.
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