Trump's week in review: Iran War, Pam Bondi and Planned Parenthood

1. Department of Justice sues Minnesota for letting trans-identified male students play women’s sports, use women’s spaces 

In a statement published Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League over policies allowing trans-identified male athletes to compete in women’s sports and allowing trans-identified males into girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, alleges that the defendants’ policies violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Title IX prohibits educational institutions that receive federal funding from engaging in discrimination on the basis of sex. Noting that Minnesota receives $3 billion in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the DOJ highlighted its partnership with the Executive Branch agencies to ensure Minnesota complies with federal law and shared comments from cabinet leaders. 

“The Justice Department cannot ignore a state’s brazen defiance of federal antidiscrimination law,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. “In service of radical gender ideology, Minnesota’s actions violate Title IX and deny female athletes their hard-earned trophies, records, dignity, and safety.” 

Insisting that “the Trump Administration will always fight for the safety and civil rights of women and girls,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon condemned Minnesota’s policies for allowing “men to dominate women’s sports, denying female athletes fair competition and eroding their right to equal access in educational programs and activities.” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stressed that “Title IX is clear: schools that accept federal funding must protect the rights, safety, and dignity of female students.”