The legal saga over trans policies in Minnesota schools continues as a local group is now calling on the federal government to investigate 16 districts for potential Title IX violations.
The Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC), a local nonprofit law firm, said in a Sept. 23 letter to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that the 16 districts have policies in place that violate Title IX, the U.S. Constitution, and federal executive orders.
According to UMLC, these policies allow boys to participate in girls’ sports, use girls’ restrooms and locker rooms, and share overnight accommodations with girls based on their stated gender identity.
“Additionally, these school districts seek to hide student social sex transitions from their parents, in violation of the Constitution,” the letter states.
The school districts named in the letter include: St. Paul, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, Minneapolis, Anoka-Hennepin, Osseo, Rochester, Robbinsdale, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, Bloomington, Duluth, White Bear Lake, Burnsville-Eagan-Savage, Moorhead, Hopkins, Richfield, and St. Louis Park.
“These districts are violating federal law, ignoring recent Supreme Court guidance, and sidelining parents from decisions involving their own children,” said Brent Robbins, UMLC’s senior counsel for religious liberty.
“Title IX protects women and girls. The Constitution protects parents’ rights. Minnesota school districts do not get to erase those protections through internal policies, and the federal government should act.”
The letter urges the Office for Civil Rights to open investigations into the districts in question and, if necessary, cut off all federal funding.
As the letter explains, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison released an opinion in February 2025 directing the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) to “disregard the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders and continue to permit boys to play in girls’ sports.”
In turn, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against MSHSL and the Minnesota Department of Education in March, alleging that they had engaged “in sex-based discrimination by requiring girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions that are designated exclusively for girls and allowing boys to invade intimate spaces designated exclusively for girls.”
UMLC’s letter describes Ellison’s actions as a “direct challenge to the authority of the federal government to enforce federal law” and says this raises “substantial questions under the Supremacy Clause.”
Letters were also sent directly to each of the 16 school districts and MSHSL.
“Boys are boys, and girls are girls, no matter what Attorney General Ellison or some school districts say,” said UMLC President Doug Seaton.
“By ignoring biological reality and the law, these districts are endangering vulnerable children by allowing boys to use girls’ private facilities. They are also denying girls opportunities in sports, and putting them at risk of physical harm.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
