Trump admin suing California over alleged Title IX violations
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it will sue the California Department of Education (CDE) and California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) over Title IX violations.
The administration is asking for an injunction on the state’s policy allowing males to compete against females in sports – an issue that reached a fever pitch earlier this year when a transgender athlete won multiple events in girls’ track and field competitions.
California’s policies "eviscerate equal athletic opportunities for girls … they also require girls to share intimate spaces, such as locker rooms, with boys, causing a hostile educational environment that denies girls educational opportunities," the lawsuit said.
"The results of these illegal policies are stark: girls are displaced from podiums, denied awards, and miss out on critical visibility for college scholarships and recognition."
The state’s current policy allows athletes to participate in sports "consistent with" their gender identity. State officials have maintained that this doesn’t violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The CIF told Fox News Digital it doesn't comment on legal matters.
The CDE had "no comment on pending litigation.
"Based upon today’s reporting, we are aware of the Trump Administration's lawsuit challenging California law," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. "Our office remains committed to defending and upholding California laws and the rights of all students, including transgender students, to be free from discrimination and harassment."
Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement that the CDE and CIF were following laws enacted in 2013.
The U.S. Education Department recently found California in violation of Title IX. However, the CDE and CIF both declined to sign the proposed resolution agreement offered by the department late last month. The CDE and CIF were given until July 7 to meet the demand.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom attends a press conference, July 2, 2025 in Burbank, California.
REP KEVIN KILEY REFLECTS ON IMPACT OF CALIFORNIA TRANS ATHLETE CONFLICT AMID STATE'S BATTLE WITH TRUMP
On Tuesday, Newsom was asked again about his thoughts on transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
"I struggled with the issue of fairness when it came to sports," he said at an event in South Carolina. "And we tried to figure that out a couple of years ago, and we were unsuccessful, and we struggled with that recently.
"And my position is that I don’t think it’s fair, but I also think it’s demeaning to talk down to people, and to belittle the trans community. And I don’t like the way the right wing talks about the trans community. These people just want to survive."
Newsom has made his thoughts about fairness clear, and those words were used in the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the state, which was filed in U.S. District Court Central District of California.
"Across the State of California, girls must compete against boys in various sports pursuant to policies enforced by the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF)," the suit read. "These discriminatory policies and practices ignore undeniable biological differences between boys and girls, in favor of an amorphous ‘gender identity.’"
"The results of these illegal policies are stark: girls are displaced from podiums, denied awards, and miss out on critical visibility for college scholarships and recognition. In the words of the Governor of California, it is ‘deeply unfair’ for girls to compete against boys.
"This discrimination is not only illegal and unfair but also demeaning, signaling to girls that their opportunities and achievements are secondary to accommodating boys. It erodes the integrity of girls’ sports, diminishes their competitive experience, and undermines the very purpose of Title IX: to provide equal access to educational benefits, including interscholastic athletics.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"Despite warnings from the United States Department of Education, Defendants continue to require California schools to allow boys to compete against girls. The United States accordingly files this action to stop Defendants’ illegal sex discrimination against female student athletes."
Fox News' Alexandra Rego contributed to this report.
Dad with deadly brain cancer that kills in a year is cancer free after taking new drug
A breakthrough drug is fighting brain cancer head-on.
Glioblastoma is widely considered the deadliest form of brain cancer, killing over 10,000 Americans each year. There is no cure for the highly aggressive disease — many patients survive just nine months after diagnosis.
Ben Trotman was diagnosed with glioblastoma in October 2022 at 40.
Treatment focuses on managing symptoms and extending life via surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible and radiation therapy and chemotherapy to destroy cancer cells.
Now, researchers from University College London Hospitals are recruiting glioblastoma patients for a trial of the immunotherapy drug ipilimumab. Sold under the brand name Yervoy, the monoclonal antibody stimulates the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.
Oncologists are optimistic since a UK father shows no signs of having a tumor after he took ipilimumab before his glioblastoma treatment.
Ben Trotman was diagnosed with glioblastoma in October 2022 at 40.
“The crucial element of this trial is that patients will have their immune system boosted by the drug before they have any other treatment, when they are fit and well enough to tolerate the immunotherapy,” said Dr. Paul Mulholland, the consultant medical oncologist leading the trial.
“We saw with Ben, the one patient recruited to the immunotherapy study, NeAT-GLIO, that he has had clear scans since having the treatment and the tumor hasn’t returned more than two and a half years later.”
Glioblastoma is widely considered the deadliest form of brain cancer, killing over 10,000 Americans each year.
Trotman met with Mulholland, who enrolled him in a clinical trial for ipilimumab. He was the first patient in the world — and the only person in the trial — to take the drug before glioblastoma treatment.
“Getting this diagnosis was the most traumatic experience,” said Trotman’s wife, Emily.
“We were grappling with the fact that Ben had gone from being apparently perfectly healthy to having months to live.”
After taking the drug, Ben underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Two years and eight months later, his scans are clear.
“It is very unusual to have a clear scan with glioblastoma, especially when he didn’t have the follow-up surgery that had been planned to remove all of the tumor that was initially visible on scans,” Mulholland said.
Ben and Emily Trotman wed in 2023, after he began his immunotherapy treatment.
“We hope that the immunotherapy and follow-up treatment Ben has had will hold his tumor at bay,” he added, “and it has so far, which we are delighted to see.”
In January 2023, months after his diagnosis, Ben married Emily. The couple welcomed a daughter, Mabel, earlier this year.
They enjoy taking her for walks along with their rescue dog, Jerry.
“We are trying to live as normal a life as possible,” Emily said.
“We are in a unique position of which there is no precedent and which comes with a great deal of uncertainty,” she continued. “We want to live each day as if it were our last, but we also want to plan for the future, which we hope to have.”
Researchers plan to recruit 16 glioblastoma patients like Ben over 18 months.
After taking ipilimumab, the trial participants will undergo radiotherapy and chemotherapy and perhaps surgery depending on the extent of their disease.
Dr. Paul Mulholland and Dame Siobhain McDonagh, who raised funds for the new clinical trial of ipilimumab.
The trial is being funded by Dame Siobhain McDonagh, a member of the British Parliament, whose sister died of glioblastoma in 2023.
“My beloved sister Margaret was appalled to discover that there had been no advances in brain cancer treatment for decades when she was diagnosed with glioblastoma,” McDonagh said. “Changing this was Margaret’s final campaign and one that I have continued in her memory.”
Treatment will take place at the NIHR UCLH’s Clinical Research Facility at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
“I am delighted that this new trial, with the same immunotherapy drug I received, is going ahead and others will have the opportunity to take part,” Ben said. “It will give people newly diagnosed with glioblastoma some hope.”
