Trump admin sues Maine over transgender athletes
The federal lawsuit comes after the Trump administration tried to cut off all of Maine's federal funding for public schools and school lunches.
- Trump threatened to withhold funding from Maine if the state refused to comply with an executive order he had signed barring transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports.
- Maine Gov. Janet Mills replied: "We're going to follow the law, sir. We'll see you in court."
- Out of 510,000 athletes competing at the collegiate level, fewer than 10 publicly identify as transgender, according to the NCAA.
WASHINGTON − Attorney General Pam Bondi announced legal action against Maine for refusing to ban transgender athletes from participating in women's and girls' sports marking an escalation of President Donald Trump's conflict with the northeastern state.
"We believe they are failing to protect women, and it's not only an issue in sports. It is a public safety issue," Bondi said at a news conference.
Joined by other administration officials and anti-trans activists, Bondi said the federal suit underscores the importance of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex in educational institutions.
The attorney general said Maine's leadership had refused multiple attempts to enforce the law.
"We are also considering whether to retroactively pull all the funding that they have received for not complying in the past," Bondi said in her April 16 announcement.
The lawsuit comes five days after the administration tried to cut off all of Maine's federal funding for public schools and its school lunch program over the issue, following a Feb. 21 meeting of Trump and a group of U.S. governors where he clashed with Maine's Democratic governor, Janet Mills.
At the meeting, Trump threatened to withhold funding from Maine if the state refused to comply with an executive order he had signed barring transgender women from participating in girls' and women's sports.
His threat prompted Mills to reply: "We're going to follow the law, sir. We'll see you in court."
Mills said in a statement Wednesday the suit was an "expected salvo" in an unprecedented campaign to pressure the state and abandon the rule of law.
"This matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as has been claimed, it is about state's rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will, instead of upholding the law," Mills said.
Shortly after the tense exchange between Trump and Mills in February, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights launched investigations into the Maine Department of Education and a local school district, accusing each of allowing transgender athletes to play in girl's sports.
Maine's assistant attorney general, Sarah Forster, told the Department of Education in an April 11 letter that the state would not sign a proposed draft resolution or any revisions.
"Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams," she wrote. "Your letters to date do not cite a single case that so holds."
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who attended Wednesday's news conference, said their investigation found Maine "continues to willfully violate Title IX."
"We offered Maine leaders multiple opportunities to change their policy and to protect women in sports, and they have refused," she said. "I hope Gov. Mills will recognize that her political feud with the president will deprive the students in her state of much more than the right to fair sporting events."
Mills has slammed the Trump administration's efforts, however, reiterating that attempts to bring her to heel, such as an April 2 letter from the secretary of agriculture pausing federal money for certain Maine educational programs, such as school lunch funding, should alarm state leaders across the country.
"For nearly two months, Maine has endured recriminations from the federal government that have targeted hungry school kids, hardworking fishermen, senior citizens, new parents, and countless Maine people," Mills said.
"We have been subject to politically motivated investigations that opened and closed without discussion, leaving little doubt that their outcomes were predetermined," Mills said. "Let today serve as warning to all states: Maine might be among the first to draw the ire of the federal government in this way, but we will not be the last."
Trump frequently railed against transgender athletes on the campaign trail. His executive order has been praised by supporters who say it will restore fairness, while critics say the directive infringes on the rights of a tiny minority of athletes.
Out of 510,000 athletes competing at the collegiate level, fewer than 10 publicly identify as transgender, NCAA President Charlie Baker said in January.
Riley Gaines, a former NCAA All-American swimmer, who has become a prominent anti-trans activist, said she is frustrated that women and girls have fight to bar trans women from participating in women's and girls' athletics.
"Amazing to me that we are still here fighting this fight, that the Democratic Party has really doubled down, tripled down, quadrupled down on their ridiculous stance," she said.
Polling shows Americans have become more supportive of laws that require transgender athletes to compete on teams that match their sex identified at birth.
In 2022, a Pew Research survey found 58% of U.S. adults supported such rules compared with 66% who said the same in a poll conducted this year.
Among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, 45% said they favor laws and policies requiring athletes compete in sports that match their sex at birth, which is up from 37% among the same group three years ago, poll shows.
Contributing: Reuters