Newsom's office responds to SCOTUS ruling on women's sports as California faces ongoing trans athlete wave

California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office has responded after the U.S. Supreme Court made a historic ruling on trans athletes in women's sports on Tuesday.

The court ruled 6-3 to uphold state laws that protect women's sports from biological male trans athletes. California is one of 23 states in the country that don't have laws to protect women's sports, and since 2014, has had a law in place to protect the rights of males to compete against females.

A spokesperson for Newsom's office said the Supreme Court ruling will not impact California's current setup.

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"The Supreme Court’s decision does not affect California’s laws. The state remains committed to ensuring every Californian, including the LGBTQ community, is met with dignity and respect," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

A source within Newsom's office provided Fox News Digital a bulleted list titled "As a Governor, Governor Newsom has the strongest record in the country on protecting and expanding transgender rights."

The list included several bragging points, including "making it easier to update gender markers on official documents," and "appointed multiple trans judges."

The list concludes by pointing out, "California is one of 22 states that have laws requiring transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. California passed this law in 2013 (AB 1266) and it was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown."

Newsom's state was ravaged by a trans athlete national media crisis in May, for the second year in a row and third time in total in one year, as prominent trans athlete AB Hernandez competed in girls' sports.

Hernandez won two track and field state titles for the second straight year. Ahead of the first round of the state tournament in early May, "Save Girls Sports" protesters led by former NCAA women's soccer player Sophia Lorey scheduled a press conference near the competition grounds.

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A source within Newsom's office previously addressed the press conference in the days leading up to the event in a statement provided to Fox News Digital, prompting controversy and criticism from locals.

"The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect. He rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids. The Governor’s position is simple: stand with all kids and stand up to bullies," the statement read.

The governor faced mass backlash from activists across the country for his office's statement. The controversy only exploded the very next week when it was revealed the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) re-implemented a pilot program that bumped every girl who finished behind the trans athlete up by one spot on the podium. The change resulted in now-infamous imagery of Hernandez sharing podium spots with the female second-place finishers.

President Donald Trump's Department of Justice is engaged in Title IX lawsuits against education agencies in California for its policies that allow trans athletes in girls' high school sports. The lawsuit was officially launched in July after Hernandez won two state finals in triple jump and high jump, and won second place in long jump, at last year's championships.

Newsom previously declared that he believed males competing in girls' sports is "deeply unfair" during an episode of his podcast with the late Charlie Kirk in March 2025.

Then in July 2025, Newsom spoke about the issue in an interview on the "Shawn Ryan Show" saying he has been "amazingly frustrated by it" and that he regularly encounters parents who are angry about the state's policies at his children's soccer games.

"Every parent coming up says, ‘It’s so unfair.' Like ‘Whoa,' like everywhere I went, progressively-minded people, not bigots, that are champions of trans policy like I am, but didn't like the sports. They were like ‘come on man, you got to figure this out,’" Newsom said.

Newsom added that his allies in the LGBTQ caucus were "furious" with him after he made his initial comments in March while speaking to Kirk, and even recalled an alleged conversation with President Donald Trump about it.

"Trump is having the time of his life, and I assure you he is because we've had conversations on this topic," Newsom said.

"And now he's suing and threatening us, and they're just, and you know, I'm the poster child," Newsom added. "But I do think we have to address that issue."