San Jose State University (SJSU) and the California State University (CSU) system are suing the federal government in response to its determination that SJSU violated Title IX by allowing a transgender volleyball player to compete on the women’s team.

The current administration launched an investigation into the university immediately following the president’s executive order, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, issued soon after he took office. The school made headlines in the heat of the 2024 election campaign when the girls’ volleyball team co-captain, Brooke Slusser, joined a lawsuit led by anti-trans activist and swimmer Riley Gaines which challenged the NCAA’s transgender-inclusion policies and outed the trans player on Slusser’s team.

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In January, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) warned SJSU that it risks “imminent enforcement action” if it doesn’t voluntarily resolve the violations, which took place under Biden-era rules that interpreted Title IX as prohibiting discrimination against transgender student-athletes.

In addition to the ED’s demands that the school adopt the federal government’s “biology-based definitions” of the words “male” and “female”, acknowledge that sex is unchangeable, and “restore all individual athletic records and titles misappropriated by male athletes competing in women’s categories,” the administration wants San Jose State to “issue a personalized letter of apology on behalf of SJSU to each female athlete for allowing her participation in athletics to be marred by sex discrimination.”

Instead, the school is fighting back.

SJSU president  Cynthia Teniente-Matson announced the lawsuit on Friday. She said the school believes the findings by the federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) “aren’t grounded in the facts or the law.”

“This is not a step we take lightly,” Teniente-Matson continued. “However, we have a responsibility to defend the integrity of our institution and the rule of law, while ensuring that every member of our community is treated fairly and in accordance with the law. Our position is simple: We have followed the law and cannot be punished for doing so.”

The statement also confirmed the school’s “unwavering” support for LGBTQ+ students: “We know the attention the university has received around this issue and the investigative process that followed have been unsettling for many in our community. We’ve heard the fear and anxiety that it has created and recognize that waiting for the university’s response has been difficult at a time already filled with uncertainty.” 

Slusser called the school’s response “absolutely absurd” and said Teniente-Matson “can’t get off her high horse long enough to even send an apology.”

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In 2024, Slusser filed a lawsuit along with SJSU associate head coach Melissa Batie-Smoose and 10 other current and former Mountain West Conference (MWC) players against the conference. The suit sought an emergency injunction to have the SJSU player who was alleged to be transgender declared ineligible to compete in the tournament.

The player in question had already competed at the college level for the past three seasons, including two seasons with the SJSU team. She drew little attention prior to recent allegations about her gender identity. While the defendants in the case did not deny the presence of a transgender woman on the SJSU team, according to the Associated Press, the player in question has not commented on her gender identity publicly.

U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews denied the plaintiffs’ request to expedite court proceedings on the basis of it being an “emergency.”

“The Court finds the movants’ delay was not reasonable, there is no evidence to suggest they were precluded from seeking emergency relief earlier, and the rush to litigate these complex issues now over a mandatory injunction places a heavy lift on the MWC at the eleventh hour,” Crews wrote at the time, according to ESPN.

Several teams, including those from Southern Utah University, Boise State University, Utah State University, and Wyoming University, had previously forfeited their matches against SJSU this season over the alleged trans player. The lawsuit also sought to have the losses accrued from those forfeits vacated. Crews, however, said that the teams were aware that those forfeits would amount to losses at the time and denied the request to vacate them and re-seed the tournament.