The Department of Justice announced a lawsuit Monday against Minnesota and the state’s high school sports league for allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports.
According to the DOJ, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) have 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.”
In doing so, MDE and MSHSL have openly defied Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding, the DOJ said in a press release.
“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.”
The lawsuit highlights the story of Marissa Rothenberger, a biological male who pitched for the girls’ varsity softball team as a junior at Champlin Park High School.
Rothenberger threw multiple shutouts, including a complete-game shutout in the Class 4A state championship game, leading the Rebels to the 2025 title.
The performance prompted federal investigations into Minnesota’s compliance with Title IX and drew criticism from female athletes who said they were displaced or put at a disadvantage.
The U.S. Department of Education concluded in September that MDE and MSHSL violated Title IX, and then referred the case to the Department of Justice in January.
Monday’s lawsuit says a male athlete in a southeast Minnesota school district has been competing in girls’ track and field, and plans to compete in girls’ cross country this spring.
In another example, the lawsuit says a female student at Stewartville High School was forced to share school restrooms and locker rooms with boys.
“When Student C raised the issue with her school principal, the principal responded that the boys could ‘be whoever they want to be,’” the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit is asking the courts to declare Minnesota’s policies and practices a violation of Title IX, and issue an injunction prohibiting MDE and MSHSL from engaging in further Title IX violations.
“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 that harms vulnerable girls,” the lawsuit says.
Alpha News reached out to MDE and MSHSL for comment on the lawsuit but did not immediately receive a response.
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.
