AUGUSTA, Maine — When then-U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh proposed what would become the landmark Title IX law in 1972, the Indiana Democrat said it was an important step in giving women equal rights in education and no longer viewing them as “the weaker sex.”
The first known appearance of the word “transgender” in print came two years after passage of the anti-sex discrimination law that is credited with vastly boosting opportunities for girls and women in sports while also covering other issues such as sexual violence on campuses.
Times have changed.
After Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden expanded interpretations of the law to protect transgender students, President Donald Trump is reinterpreting Title IX by arguing it bars Maine and other states from allowing transgender students to compete in sports aligned with their gender identity.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a lawsuit against the state Wednesday that claims Maine’s policies have discriminated against girls and women. The gambit may push the conservative U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the Republican president’s interpretation of the law will stand and force Maine and the 22 other states with similar policies to change them.
Out of the tens of thousands of Maine high school students competing in sports, the Trump administration’s lawsuit cites three transgender students in girls sports here, including a track and field title winner whom Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, singled out in a viral February social media post that got Trump’s attention. He later clashed with Gov. Janet Mills and a White House event and sought to cut off federal funding to Maine on multiple fronts.
The lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education that is before a federal magistrate judge here claims that competing with or alongside transgender athletes exposes girls and women to “heightened risks” of physical and psychological harm without citing evidence.
“We want to get states to comply with us,” Bondi said Wednesday, with Libby and conservative activist Riley Gaines by her side. “That’s what this is about.”
Mills, a Democrat, issued a statement saying the lawsuit was expected after the Trump administration launched investigations that swiftly found Maine and its schools are violating Title IX. The case is not about sports or protecting girls but rather about “defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will,” she 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,” Mills said.
One legal expert pointed to the limits of Trump resting his case on a February executive order rather than existing law or the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County ruling in 2020 found employers cannot fire someone for being transgender or gay.
Retired Indiana University law professor Jennifer Drobac said the current federal laws and court precedent “make clear” that Trump does not have a valid case against Maine.
“Therefore, his retaliatory actions against Maine are also illegal and unfounded, in my opinion,” Drobac said.
While the Trump administration argues in its lawsuit that the term “sex” does not cover gender identity, Naomi Shatz, a Title IX expert and lawyer with the Boston-based Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP, noted courts in several federal circuits have found the meaning of “sex” under Title IX prohibits discrimination based on gender identity.
But Trump’s allies in the legal world feel he could win the case against Maine, noting a federal judge in Kentucky blocked in January the Biden administration’s attempt to extend Title IX protections against gender identity. Hal Frampton, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, said this “is not the first time we’ve seen states ignore biological reality at the expense of young girls and women.”
“Maine should prioritize the well-being and protection of young girls, not push harmful ideology,” Frampton said.
The Democratic-led Legislature in Maine has not yet moved to change the state’s laws and ban transgender girls from sports. Neal McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the “values clash” involving Trump and Maine would be better settled by school districts or state lawmakers.
“So even if the federal government has authority to try to impose one answer, it shouldn’t,” McCluskey said.
Libby, who is suing House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, over losing her voting privileges after the chamber censured her in February and she refused to apologize for singling out the student on social media, said Wednesday morning on WGAN that banning transgender girls from sports is “the commonsense thing to do.”
But MaineTransNet Executive Director Bre Danvers-Kidman, whose group advocates for transgender Mainers, said the Trump administration is “targeting a poorly understood group of people in hopes of making us scapegoats for the economic games he is playing with our state.”
“Ultimately, it is my hope that everyone will recognize this scapegoating for what it is and allow the greater protections Maine has offered trans residents for over twenty years to stand,” Danvers-Kidman said.
