The Trump administration sued the Minnesota Education Department and the state group in charge of interscholastic athletics Monday, accusing both of violating civil rights protections for girls by allowing transgender students to participate on girls’ sports teams.

The Justice Department is asking the U.S. District Court in Minnesota to prevent the state from allowing transgender students to compete in athletic competitions for girls and to force schools to maintain separate locker rooms and bathrooms based on sex, with no exceptions for gender identity.

The lawsuit is part of a broader federal push from the Trump administration to redefine sex-based discrimination laws, known broadly as Title IX protections, to prevent transgender athletes from participating in school sports. The Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit last year against the California Interscholastic Federation over its gender policies.

“Despite pleas from students and parents for fairness, safety and sanity — and repeated warnings from federal officials that Minnesota is violating Title IX — Minnesota steadfastly and proudly persists in an intentionally discriminatory practice,” the Justice Department wrote in its lawsuit Monday.

Emily Buss, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Education Department, said the state was reviewing the complaint while remaining “committed to ensuring every child — regardless of background, ZIP code, or ability — has access to a world-class education.” A spokesperson for the Minnesota State High School League declined to comment.

In February 2025, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” the league almost immediately said it would continue to follow state laws related to sports teams instead. The U.S. Education Department announced an investigation into the Minnesota State High School League soon after.

In June, the administration assigned the case to its newly formed Title IX Special Investigations Team.

The state rejected a proposed resolution from the administration to change its policy, issue formal apologies to female athletes who have competed against transgender students and rescind any high school records held by transgender athletes.

In September, the Education Department and Health and Human Services Department concluded that both the state education department and the high school athletics group had violated civil rights laws. The government said it had determined transgender students had been allowed to compete in lacrosse, softball, track and field and on other girls’ teams.

The case was referred to the Justice Department in January.

During the first 14 months of Trump’s second term, the Education Department has opened at least 40 civil rights investigations into schools with transgender athletes or districts with policies that provide protections for transgender students.

Those investigations have increasingly become fodder for lawsuits. In addition to the two Justice Department lawsuits, California State University and the state of California have filed suits challenging the government’s policies targeting transgender students, arguing that the federal government has improperly applied civil rights law.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By: Michael C. Bender/Eric Lee
c. 2026 The New York Times Company