Feds Pressure California After Boy Wins in Girls Track and Field Championship

by Emily Washburn | June 4, 2025 | Culture

California played a high stakes game of chicken with the federal government over Title IX enforcement last week, culminating in a boy winning two girls state track and field titles on Saturday.

Now, California officials’ commitment to “inclusivity” could cost the state billions in federal funding.

California planted itself on the Department of Education’s (DOE) radar in February after the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) publicly vowed to defy “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” — an executive order prohibiting boys from playing girls sports in programs that receive federal funding.

President Trump signed the order on February 6. One day later, CIF told Fox it would follow California Education Code Section 221.5(f), which reads:

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.

The Department of Education launched an investigation into CIF in February for its statements. After months with no news, the conflict drifted out of public focus.

It exploded back into the media in mid-May, when AB Hernandez, a boy, began dominating girls high school track and field events in California ahead of the state championship.

As of May 13, Hernandez led the state in girls triple and long jump. In regional championships, he won the triple jump by “nearly seven feet,” according to Sports Illustrated, the long jump by more than three feet and the high jump by a foot.

Not surprisingly, Hernandez won state titles in the women’s high jump and triple jump at the championship on May 31, 2025. He took second place in the long jump.

Sophia Lorey is the outreach director at California Family Council, a Focus on the Family-allied family policy council. CIF officials escorted Lorey out of the state championships for passing out “Save Girls Sports” wristbands to fans.

“What I witnessed at the California State Track and Field Championships was not progress, it was the erasure of girls sports,” Lorey told the Daily Citizen of her experience.

“Watching two girls share one of the biggest moments of their athletic careers with a male competitor was a painful reminder of how far we’ve strayed from truth and fairness.”

But CIF didn’t just wreck female competitors’ athletic ambitions by allowing Hernandez to compete — it played fast and loose with the state’s federal education funding.

On May 27, just days before the competition, President Donald Trump weighed in on social media.

“California … continues to illegally allow men to play in women’s sports,” he wrote, citing Hernandez’s qualification for state finals.

The president continued:

This is not fair and totally demeaning to women and girls. Please be hereby advised that large scale funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the executive order on this subject matter is not adhered to.

“This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!” he emphatically concluded.

CIF clearly thought the President meant some kind of business. It expeditiously issued a rule change bumping girls who competed against Hernandez to the place, or medal, they would have received in a race without boys. CIF also invited girls that had been bumped out of contention by Hernandez to participate in the championship.

But Hernandez still competed. He still beat his female peers. Rightful winners shared the podium with him at award ceremonies.

On May 28, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would be joining DOE’s investigation against CIF for violating Title IX.

“My office has found reasonable cause to believe that CIF… is engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination against female athletes,” Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Department of Civil Rights Investigations, wrote in a letter to the organization.

Dhillon cites CIF Bylaw 300.D, which reads:

All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records.

“As a result of CIF’s policy,” she continues, “California’s top-ranked girls triple jumper, and second-ranked girls long jumper [AB Hernandez] is a boy.”

CIF wasn’t the only group Dhillon implicated. In the same letter, she announced her office would also investigate whether CIF, the California Department of Education, Jurupa Union School District (Hernandez’ district) and “any applicable state laws” had violated girls’ constitutional right to equal protection under the law

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, in part:

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States … nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws.

A press release from Dhillon’s office helps contextualize the DOJ’s Fourteenth Amendment investigation. In August 2013, then-Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1266, which created the California Education Code allowing students to participate in sports according to their “gender identity,” rather than their sex.

Dhillon’s probe indicates the DOJ is exploring whether to challenge AB 1266, and all its resulting codes and bylaws, in court as unconstitutional.

But that’s later down the line. Right now, California and the feds seem preoccupied with the state’s apparent violations of “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

If guilty, the state’s federal education funding, which totaled $10 billion in FY 2024, could be on the line.

President Trump certainly seems to think so. On Monday, he promised “large-scale fines would be imposed [on California]” via Truth Social.

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, seems equally convinced financial consequences aren’t imminent.

“Let’s be clear: sending a letter does not change the law,” Thurmond told ABC7 News on Tuesday. “The DOJ’s letter to school districts does not announce any new federal law, and the state law on this issue has remained unchanged since 2013.”

In the meantime, advocates like Lorey and California Family Council will continue whipping up support for women and girls.

“This isn’t just about sports,” Lorey emphasized. “It’s about truth, safety and the future of female opportunity.”

“If we don’t stand up now, we risk losing what generations of women fought to earn.”

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