The 3 - June 15, 2025

California attempts to stare down Federal government on trans sports

One might think that a male student-athlete from California is on his way to superstardom in track and field.  After all, as The Daily Citizen reports, as of mid-May, AB Hernandez had "led the state" in "...triple and long jump. In regional championships, he won the triple jump by “nearly seven feet,” according to Sports Illustrated, the long jump by more than three feet and the high jump by a foot."

And, as the story, goes, Hernandez "...won state titles in the "...high jump and triple jump at the championship on May 31, 2025. He took second place in the long jump."

But, take a second look, AB Hernandez is a male - you could say "biological male," but as its been pointed out, that is "redundant."  And, he is competing against female athletes.

California has placed itself at odds with Federal policy, according to the Daily Citizen article.  It states:

California planted itself on the Department of Education’s (DOE) radar in February after the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) publicly vowed to defy “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” — an executive order prohibiting boys from playing girls sports in programs that receive federal funding.

The article goes on to say:

CIF didn’t just wreck female competitors’ athletic ambitions by allowing Hernandez to compete — it played fast and loose with the state’s federal education funding.

On May 27, just days before the competition, President Donald Trump weighed in on social media.

“California … continues to illegally allow men to play in women’s sports,” he wrote, citing Hernandez’s qualification for state finals.

It stated:

On May 28, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would be joining DOE’s investigation against CIF for violating Title IX.

“My office has found reasonable cause to believe that CIF… is engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination against female athletes,” Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Department of Civil Rights Investigations, wrote in a letter to the organization.

The implications?  The Daily Citizen article says, "If guilty, the state’s federal education funding, which totaled $10 billion in FY 2024, could be on the line."

FBI's investigation of Catholics wider than once thought

You may remember the reports about the discovery that the FBI had launched an investigation against certain Catholics, painting them as threats.  The Washington Times reported recently that the...

FBI concealed the extent of its anti-Catholic operation, which then-FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told Congress was limited to a single 2023 memo, newly revealed bureau documents show.

The FBI ​files were obtained by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley and shared first with The Washington Times.

The files show that the agency was engaging in a bureauwide investigation of “Radical Traditionalist Catholics,” but Mr. Wray and other top FBI officials characterized it as a one-off memo.

In February of 2023, a whistleblower had made public a memo that, according to the article...

...was an alert that “Radical Traditionalist Catholics” adhere to an “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist ideology” and said these Catholics are prone to “extremist ideological beliefs and violent rhetoric.”

The Times reported that information was spread to other FBI offices beyond the initial release to the Richmond office to Buffalo, Portland, and Milwaukee and may have involved some 1,000 agents!

Texas passes faith-affirming laws

The Texas Legislature has passed bills that could expand the practice of religion in schools throughout the state. First Liberty Institute, at its website, stated recently that the Legislature "...passed SB 10, SB 11, and SB 965, which require the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools and protect the religious liberty rights of teachers and students, bringing state law in line with recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Kennedy v. Bremerton School District."

Matt Krause, Of Counsel for First Liberty, in a statement, said: "...Placing the Ten Commandments and national motto on schoolhouse walls is a great way to remind students of the foundations of American and Texas law. And bringing state law in line with what the U.S. Supreme Court has said about prayer in schools should make it clear to school administrators that student and teacher prayer is completely Constitutional."

Bill sponsor, Sen. Phil King, stated: "For 200 years, the Ten Commandments were displayed in public buildings and classrooms across America," adding, "The Court has … provided a test that considers whether a governmental display of religious content comports with America's history and tradition. Now that the legal landscape has changed, it is time for Texas to pass SB 10 and restore the history and tradition of the Ten Commandments in our state and our nation."