Following President Donald Trump’s threat against Maine’s federal funding last week, his administration has hit the state with investigations that an expert called “highly unusual.”
Three cases related to Title IX, the 1972 law barring sex-based discrimination in schools, have been launched since Friday, when Trump and Gov. Janet Mills had a war of words over the president’s threat to withhold federal funding because Maine allows transgender students to compete in girls sports contrary to Trump’s new interpretation of the law.
By enlisting agencies other than the U.S. Department of Education to conduct Title IX investigations, the Trump administration has broken with past precedent. It also came after direct comments from the president. The issue ultimately could be settled through a string of court decisions over how Title IX applies to transgender student-athletes.
“This is highly unusual,” Liz Abdnour, a Michigan-based lawyer who specializes in Title IX, said.
Maine rose to Trump’s attention last week after a viral social media post from Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, about a transgender student at Greely High School in Cumberland who won a girls indoor track title. On Thursday evening, he made comments threatening Maine’s federal funding and then followed it up the next day by admonishing Mills at a White House event.
That was followed by action. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education said it was investigating Maine and the Greely school district for violating Title IX. The University of Maine System is facing a review from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. On Saturday, the University of Maine drew a similar review from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Andrew Miltenberg, a New York City-based lawyer who has focused on Title IX investigations since 2011, said his firm has been involved in more than 1,000 investigations and hearings and has brought more Title IX lawsuits than any other in the country. He said hearing that the USDA and HHS were investigating Title IX complaints threw him “for a loop.”
“Never once has it been anyone other than the Department of Education that’s referenced or involved,” Miltenberg said.
Institutions that receive federal funding agree to abide by Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights laws. But the U.S. Department of Education typically handles alleged violations, Abdnour said.
Abdnour could think of only one Title IX case that HHS has been involved with. That was a major one from 2019 at Michigan State University. It was because Larry Nassar, a former doctor who sexually assaulted hundreds of girls and women while employed by the university and USA Gymnastics, was related to the university’s health care team.
There was only one such USDA investigation from 2015 to 2019, according to a 2020 Government Accountability Office review that found the agency lacked the requisite policies to consistently handle complaints. The USDA’s website, archived on Feb. 5, outlines what Title IX is and how it ensures academic programs are complying. That page was removed by Monday.
All public agencies, including state land-grant universities like UMaine, must comply with Title IX or risk losing federal funding, though it is rarely taken away. The federal government gave the state roughly $338 million for education in the 2025 fiscal year, according to Maine Department of Education figures. Of that, $174.9 million goes to elementary and secondary education and $141 million goes to post-secondary education. That does not include student loans.
The USDA and HHS did not respond to requests for comment on their reviews. Anyone facing discrimination or retaliation because of a suspected Title IX violation should file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights, said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the education department.
“Any entity that receives taxpayer dollars and violates Title IX faces losing federal funding,” Trainor said. “The Trump Education Department will continue to work to ensure schools and athletic associations across the country are in compliance with Title IX.”
UMaine received $29.78 million from the USDA in 2024, university spokesperson Samantha Warren said. The system learned of that investigation through the media on Saturday. As of Monday, it has not received any formal communication from either department about the review, she said.
UMaine is not aware of any previous system or university-wide Title IX reviews, Warren said. There were routine compliance checks and reviews of individual programs in 2022 and 2017.
Typically institutions receive a letter or other communication telling them about a review or investigation, multiple lawyers said. The agency investigating will gather information, get records, look at disciplinary issues and comparable cases, Kim Pacelli, a Maine-based attorney with TNG who specializes in Title IX, said.
The investigator may interview staff and occasionally visit the institution. It typically takes multiple months and may take longer with departments that are short staffed, said Pacelli, who surmised that the Trump administration is organizing staffing to move quicker on priority investigations.
California and Minnesota are facing similar Title IX investigations as Maine, which is among 23 states that allow students to compete in sports consistent with their identified gender, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
“To have them both landing at the same time and having them be essentially what appears to be at the direction of the President of the United States, that’s not something you see every day,” Pacelli said.
