The Maine organization that oversees high school athletic competition has pushed back against the Trump administration claiming that it is in violation of federal civil rights law, arguing in a letter that the federal government does not have the authority to investigate its policies.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights concluded that the Maine Principals’ Association was in violation of Title IX, the landmark civil rights law barring sex discrimination in educational programs, by allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports.
The agency previously determined that the Maine Department of Education violated Title IX last month before expanding the scope of its inquiry to also include the Maine Principals’ Association and Greely High School in Cumberland, where a transgender girl recently won a girls’ track meet, setting off a chain of events that prompted President Donald Trump to crack down on Maine last month.
Greely was also found in violation on Monday. The federal government gave the three targets of its investigation 10 days to agree to change their policies. If they do not, the U.S. Department of Justice could try to force the changes by filing a lawsuit.
On Tuesday, however, an attorney for the Maine Principals’ Association sent the federal agency a letter claiming that it did not have the jurisdiction to investigate or bring litigation against the body because it received no federal funds, according to a copy of the letter.
“Specifically, the entity being investigated must be a recipient of federal financial assistance and with regard to this investigation specifically, HHS,” the attorney, James Belleau of Trafton, Matzen, Belleau & Frenette in Auburn, wrote.
The Maine Principals’ Association is not a recipient, he stated. Therefore, the agency should dismiss the review.
The federal government’s March 17 notice that determined the Maine Principals’ Association had violated the law stated that the government had jurisdiction over the Maine Principals’ Association because the state’s education department “has ceded its authority in the area of interscholastic athletic competition at the high school level” to the organization, according to the document, and the state receives federal funding from U.S. HHS.
Jared Bornstein, a spokesman for the Maine Principals’ Association, said the organization has yet to receive a response from the federal government.
While the organization is not subject to the authority of the federal government’s enforcement actions, it is still dedicated to the principles of Title IX, he said in a statement.
“Until recently, our policy aligned with both Title IX and the Maine Human Rights Act
which has been and always will be our intention. The entities who govern the content of Title IX
and the MHRA are the responsible parties to resolving that conflict,” he stated.
