U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Wednesday that the Trump administration is launching a civil lawsuit against Maine for allegedly violating a law preventing discrimination against women.
The lawsuit is the latest development in a conflict over a Maine law that allows transgender athletes to compete on girls' sports teams.
The Trump administration asserts that the state is violating Title IX, and Bondi says its lawsuit will seek injunctions to end that practice, restore state titles to girls defeated by transgender athletes and, potentially, retroactively pull federal education funds.
"We tried to get Maine to comply. We don't like standing up here and filing lawsuits. We want to get states to comply with us. That's what this about," said Bondi during her announcement at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Bondi also acknowledged that the federal government has canceled grants and funding to force Maine to comply with the Trump administration's interpretation of Title IX.
Last week a federal judge blocked the U.S. Department of Agriculture's attempts to freeze funds for a school nutrition program because it didn't follow the appropriate procedure.
In a statement, Gov. Janet Mills said the lawsuit is the latest salvo in the Trump administration's attempt to force Maine to ignore the Constitution and rule of law. She described the federal government's investigations as politically motivated, predetermined and designed to hurt Maine people.
"This matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as has been claimed, it is about states rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will, instead of upholding the law," Mills said in a statement. "Federal Judge Woodcock’s ruling of last Friday awarding the state a temporary restraining order reinforces our position that the federal government has been acting unlawfully."
She added that Maine will not be the last state to end up in President Donald Trump's crosshairs.
Mills' refusal to go along with Trump's executive order banning transgender athletes from competing on women's sports teams dates back to their confrontation on Feb. 21 at the White House. During that exchange, the president declared that his administration is the federal law and that he would move to strip Maine of all federal funding if it did not comply with his order.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” he asked her.
Mills, seated at a table, replied that she'll comply with state and federal law.
“I — well, we are the federal law,” Trump said. “You’d better do it. You’d better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
“See you in court,” Mills replied as the room full of U.S. governors watched in stunned silence.
Mills has kept a relatively low profile ever since as the Trump administration began a retaliation campaign that has included temporarily yanking and then restoring a marine study grant, a Social Security program that allows parents to register their newborns at the hospital and funding to the University of Maine System. The USDA's move to freeze funds for a school nutrition program prompted the state to sue the Trump administration, leading to last week's temporary injunction by a federal judge.
At least two other states, California and Minnesota, have reportedly been notified by the Trump administration to ignore state law and ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' sports. But there's no indication either state has had grants rescinded or funding frozen.
Attorney General Aaron Frey, a Democrat elected by the Maine Legislature, said in a statement that the DOJ lawsuit was no surprise and that the state should not be penalized for following its laws because the president has a different interpretation of Title IX, a law designed to give women equal opportunities in education, including student athletics.
"We are confident Maine is acting in accordance with those laws," he said.
He added, "While the President issued an executive order that reflects his own interpretation of the (Title IX) law, anyone with the most basic understanding of American civics understands the president does not create law nor interpret law. We look forward to representing the state of Maine and defending the rule of law."
The U.S. Department of Education, which the president recently signed an executive order to dismantle, has launched investigations into Maine over the Title IX issue and recently moved to freeze its funding. The state received about $250 million in federal education funding last year, mostly for disabled and low-income students. It's unclear how a retroactive clawback of funding would affect the state if Bondi's bid is successful.
Bondi, a longtime Trump ally who represented him during his first impeachment trial, made her announcement alongside state Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn. Libby posted an image of a transgender athlete winning a pole vaulting event during a February state championship meet while blurring the faces of two other girls to protect their identities. Her post ricocheted across conservative media before President Trump confronted Mills during the National Governors Association conference at the White House on Feb. 21.
Libby was censured by the Democratic-controlled Maine House of Representatives for identifying the transgender student. The censure strips her of her ability to vote or speak until she apologizes. Libby has refused and has since sued House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, to restore her ability to vote and speak during floor debates. She has said repeatedly that her activism on the issue is about protecting women and girls, an argument also used by the Trump administration as it uses the federal bureaucracy to compel Maine to follow the president's executive order.
Mills and Frey have countered that the state is following the Maine Human Rights Act, which was amended four years to add gender identity as its own protected class, joining other protected classes such as sex, sexual orientation, disability, race, color and religion. The law specifically says that denying a person equal opportunity in athletic programs is education discrimination.
To align with state law, the Maine Principals' Association, which governs athletics for public schools, updated its policy last year to allow students to participate in sports based on the gender they identify with.
