The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Maine over the inclusion of transgender athletes in girls sports.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is fulfilling a pledge she made earlier this year to sue the state over any alleged violations of Title IX. She made the announcement during a Wednesday morning press conference, appearing alongside Education Secretary Linda McMahon, state Rep. Laurel Libby and athletes who claim to have been harmed by the inclusion of trans athletes.
The civil rights lawsuit targets the Maine Department of Education, alleging it has discriminated against girls and women and has failed to protect them in sports.
“We are going to continue to fight for women,” Bondi said.
It’s the latest entry in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign to force Maine to change its policies toward transgender residents.
In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to keep transgender athletes out of girls’ and women’s sports. That had an immediate impact nationally, with the NCAA changing its policy in response.
Not long after that Trump singled out Maine during a Republican governors meeting in Washington. The next day Trump and Gov. Janet Mills crossed paths at an event at the White House. In a heated exchange, Trump pressed Mills on the state’s policy toward transgender athletes and the governor told the president that she would “see you in court.”
State law, specifically the Maine Human Rights Act, prohibits discrimination in education, employment, housing and more on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, ancestry or national origin.
Since then, six federal agencies have been investigating Maine over its transgender policies, mostly centered around allegations of violations of the anti-discrimination law Title IX. Title IX is a federal law, passed in 1972, that guarantees equal opportunities to girls and women to compete in sports in any educational institution that receives federal funding.
There are just two transgender athletes participating in scholastic sports this school year.
The U.S. Department of Education launched a separate probe into its state counterpart over allegations that dozens of school districts are hiding students’ “gender plans” from parents in violation of the Family Educational Privacy Rights Act.
The Maine Department of Education missed a Friday deadline from its federal counterpart, agreeing that the state is at “an impasse” with resolving the dispute over the Trump administration’s novel and untested interpretation of Title IX.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services already has referred a Title IX case to the Justice Department.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey last week filed a lawsuit to prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture from freezing funds over alleged Title IX violations. Those funds support Maine programs to feed schoolchildren, children in day care and vulnerable adults. A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release those funds.
