The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Minnesota's education agencies on Monday, alleging the state violates Title IX by allowing biological males to compete in girls' athletic competitions and access girls' locker rooms and bathrooms. Former Minnesota Vikings captain Jack Brewer didn't mince words about his home state's refusal to comply with federal law.
"And I'm sick and tired of it," Brewer told Fox News Digital.
The lawsuit names both the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League as defendants. The DOJ asked a federal court in Minnesota to declare that the state is in violation of Title IX, the landmark federal statute designed to protect equal opportunities for women and girls in education and athletics. At stake: roughly $3 billion in annual federal funding that the DOJ says flows to the Minnesota Department of Education from the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, all of it contingent on Title IX compliance.
That is not a small number. And it is not a symbolic fight.
The federal government's complaint lays out a straightforward charge: Minnesota violates Title IX "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, such as multi-person locker rooms and bathrooms." The language is blunt. The legal theory is rooted in the original text and purpose of Title IX, a law passed in 1972 to guarantee women equal access to educational programs receiving federal dollars.
President Trump's mandate requires that biological male transgender athletes be kept out of girls' high school sports. Minnesota has resisted. The state filed a preemptive lawsuit last year arguing that its own human rights act supersedes the president's executive orders and that the state was already in compliance with Title IX.
A ruling on the federal government's motion to dismiss that preemptive case remains pending. Monday's DOJ lawsuit opens a second front, this time with the federal government on offense.
Jack Brewer played football at the University of Minnesota before captaining the Vikings. He still has deep ties to the state. And he framed this fight not as an abstraction but as something hitting families he knows personally.
"I've got former teammates and family members that have to deal with the realities of these public schools in Minneapolis, seeing the disrespect that comes out of these children, seeing children being sexualized and celebrating things about whether or not you want to be with a man or a woman, just completely sexualizing them."
Brewer connected the lawsuit to a broader failure of Minnesota's political leadership, a state government that, in his view, has prioritized ideological agendas over the basic educational needs of the children it serves. Minnesota has faced sharp criticism from President Trump over welfare fraud and other governance failures under Governor Tim Walz.
The former NFL captain pointed to the billions in federal education dollars flowing into the state and questioned where the money actually goes.
"The fact that you have billions of dollars coming from the federal government to fund these twisted ideologies... This is the reason why you have such an increase in transgenderism across the United States, because of states like Minnesota literally brainwashing children."
That is a strong claim, and Brewer owns it. He went further, challenging the state's stated commitment to equity.
"If they really cared about equality, then they would actually go out and put funds into educating their most underserved people, educating their children of color, but they don't do that."
The Minnesota Department of Education issued a carefully worded statement. It said it "is reviewing the filing and remains committed to ensuring every child, regardless of background, zip code, or ability, has access to a world-class education and every opportunity to thrive as their authentic self in safe, supportive school communities."
Notice what the statement does not say. It does not address the specific Title IX allegations. It does not explain how allowing biological males into girls' competitions protects female athletes. It does not acknowledge the $3 billion in federal funding now at risk. It retreats into the language of inclusion without engaging the legal substance of the complaint.
That pattern, vague affirmation of values, silence on specifics, has become a hallmark of how progressive state agencies respond when the federal government calls their bluff. Minnesota's preemptive lawsuit last year tried to establish that the state's human rights act overrides federal executive orders. The DOJ's new suit forces the question into a federal courtroom on the government's terms.
Governor Tim Walz, who has faced a firestorm of controversy on multiple fronts, was not quoted in the reporting. His administration's education agencies now face a direct legal challenge with real financial consequences.
Title IX was written to protect women. It guaranteed that girls would not be shut out of athletic programs, scholarships, and educational opportunities simply because of their sex. For decades, both parties treated it as settled law and a genuine achievement.
Now the question is whether that protection means anything if biological males can enter girls' competitions and girls' private spaces. The DOJ says no. Minnesota says its state human rights law takes precedence, an argument that, if accepted, would let any state rewrite federal civil rights protections through local statute.
Brewer praised the administration's willingness to enforce the law as written.
"President Trump and Pam Bondi are right to take on this issue, and I applaud their continued leadership in protecting young women and girls, especially athletes, by defending the original intent of Title IX and the protections it was meant to guarantee. They should continue fighting to correct this. It's common sense."
Attorney General Pam Bondi's DOJ is now pressing the case. The lawsuit asks the court to declare Minnesota in violation of federal law. The $3 billion in annual funding creates a powerful incentive for compliance, or a painful consequence for continued defiance.
Minnesota under Walz has drawn scrutiny on fronts well beyond transgender sports policy. Calls for accountability over alleged fraud-related misconduct have come from within the state's own congressional delegation. The governor's public standing has taken repeated hits, including embarrassing public appearances that were scrubbed from the internet.
Against that backdrop, the state's decision to pick a legal fight with the federal government over whether boys belong in girls' locker rooms looks less like principled defiance and more like misplaced priorities. Parents in Minneapolis, the parents Brewer says he knows, are living with the results.
The DOJ's lawsuit puts the question squarely before a federal judge. Minnesota can posture. It can issue statements about "thriving as their authentic self." But federal funding comes with federal conditions, and Title IX means what it says, or it means nothing at all.
When a state spends more energy fighting for boys' access to girls' spaces than for the girls those spaces were built to protect, the priorities are clear. So is the failure.
