Title IX and School Sports

An Eighth Circuit panel is hearing a Title IX challenge over a Minnesota softball player's participation after a transgender pitcher prompted a lawsuit that has returned to court and drawn renewed national attention. The proceedings come as the same appeals court recently paused lower‑court restrictions on tactics used by federal agents in an ICE‑related case, highlighting concurrent high‑profile federal disputes tied to Minnesota.

After the Supreme Court heard arguments in cases on protecting women’s sports, the Department of Education opened 18 Title IX investigations, including one into the California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A), which the Education Department and the Justice Department’s Title IX Special Investigations Team are probing over a policy that allows a transgender female or non‑binary student‑athlete who has completed at least one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment to compete on women’s teams. A formal complaint alleges that the policy discriminated against at least three female athletes by allowing a male athlete to play on a women’s volleyball team and access women’s locker facilities during the 2024 and 2025 seasons and that their complaints were ignored; Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey called the policy an erasure of women’s rights and vowed the Special Investigations Team will pursue the case.