Washington AG's office says it will defend girls' sports ballot measure
Attorney General Nick Brown's office says it will defend a voter-approved measure barring biological males from girls' school sports, days after the ACLU of Washington and allied groups sued to block it.
The office of Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has said it will defend a voter-approved measure that bars biological males from girls' school sports, even as the ACLU of Washington and allied groups seek to block it in court. The office said its role is to defend state laws regardless of the personal views of the attorney general or his staff, a position it has framed as a basic obligation of the office rather than a statement on the policy itself.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in King County Superior Court. The plaintiffs include TransFamilies, the Washington Education Association, which is the state's largest teachers union, and several parents. The challengers argue that the measure violates state privacy protections and anti-discrimination law. Let's Go Washington, the group that sponsored the ballot initiative, known as Initiative 638, disputes those claims and has defended the measure as a matter of fairness in girls' athletics.
The attorney general's office did not say who would lead the defense of the measure. It also did not say whether it had evaluated recusal or internal screening, a question that arises because of the office's connections to some of the parties in the case.
Those connections are central to the questions being raised. The Pacifica Law Group, the firm where Brown served as a partner from 2017 to 2021, represents the Washington Education Association in the matter. Brown returned to the firm's orbit in the political sense after the teachers union endorsed his 2024 campaign, and the union's political action committee donated to his effort. Brown's policy director previously led a program at the ACLU of Washington, one of the organizations now challenging the measure. Brown himself rejoined state government after leaving Pacifica, returning to public service in June 2023.
Brown's position on the broader national debate is also on the record. In October 2025 he led a coalition of attorneys general backing a Minnesota policy on transgender athletes, placing him among state officials who have taken a public stance on the question beyond Washington's borders. His office, however, says it does not advise the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association or local school districts, the bodies that would carry out the measure in practice. That distinction matters because the day-to-day enforcement of the rule would fall to schools and the athletic association rather than to the attorney general's office.
The case now moves forward in King County Superior Court, where the state's defense of Initiative 638 will be tested against the privacy and anti-discrimination claims raised by the challengers. Because the measure was approved directly by voters, the court's ruling will carry weight not only for the affected schools but also for the broader question of how far a ballot initiative can reach into school athletics and student privacy protections under state law.
Source: foxnews.com
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