The Trump Administration’s “Title IX Special Investigations Team” today announced that the Education Department and the Justice Department have initiated an investigation into the California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A), claiming that its ‘Transgender Participation Policy’ violates Title IX of the Education Act. The Trump Administration is going after schools in nine other states.

In a Jan. 15 press release, the Education Department, headed by former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, said the policy of California community colleges’ athletic association states that “a trans[gender] female...or non-binary student-athlete who has completed at least one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment...may compete on a women’s team.”

Education Department officials said its civil rights division had received a complaint that claimed the community college athletic policy “resulted in discrimination against at least three female athletes on the basis of sex by allowing a male athlete to participate on the women’s volleyball team at a member college and access locker facilities for women during the 2024 and 2025 seasons.”

The Trump Title IX team said that 3C2A “ignored female students’ complaints about the harms caused to females when male students participate in female sports.”

Investigators said that “3C2A has an obligation to uphold Title IX’s sex-based protections” because it sets policies for educational institutions that receive federal financial aid. Trump officials said Gov. Gavin Newsom must share the blame for these policies aimed at protecting the rights of transgender and LGBTQ student athletes.

The 3C2A has not yet responded to today’s announcement.

“The fact that a community college athletic association has a ‘Transgender Participation Policy’ is a stunning indictment of our culture,” said the Justice Department’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey. “Women’s sports are for women. Yet California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom—despite admitting the truth on a podcast—continues to put ideology above the safety of and fairness for his own students.

“The Trump Administration will not tolerate policies that erase women’s rights,” Richey said in a statement. “The Title IX Special Investigations Team looks forward to investigating this matter to ensure every woman has equal access to educational programs and athletic opportunities—because fairness and safety are non-negotiable.”

In April 2025, the Education and Justice Departments jointly announced the creation of the Title IX Special Investigations Team to streamline investigations and expedite enforcement. The Title IX SIT’s first investigation was into the California Department of Education.

Earlier this week, as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on two cases challenging state laws that ban men from competing in women’s sports, McMahon spoke outside of the Court, emphasizing the importance of upholding Title IX to protect female athletes.

The department said the policies put women’s safety in danger and take away their equal opportunities.

The investigations are against the education departments in New York and Hawaii, as well as schools in California, Connecticut, Maine, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington.

After President Trump’s Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports Executive Order in February 2025, the Education Department announced investigations into San Jose State, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts high school athletic association.

Those investigations are continuing.

At the time, Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said “The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls—and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms—to promote a radical transgender ideology. That regime ended on January 20, 2025.”

Additionally, OCR is actively reviewing athletic participation policies at a number of schools to evaluate their alignment with Title IX protections for female athletes.

A year ago, the Education Department also notified K-12 schools and higher education institutions of a return to enforcing Title IX protections on the basis of biological sex.

At San Jose State University, transgender athlete Blaire Fleming’s presence on the women’s volleyball team prompted several competing teams to forfeit games to protest competing against a transgender athlete.

Three decades of journalism experience, as a writer and editor with Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as a business journal editor and publisher and as a weekly newspaper editor in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with the Weeklys group since 2017. Recipient of several first-place writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.