U.S. Department of Justice Sues Maine Over Transgender Athlete Policy

The Trump Administration announced Wednesday it is suing Maine over the state’s transgender athlete policy, which the U.S. attorney general said violates federal anti-discrimination protections.

“The state of Maine is discriminating against women by failing to protect women in women’s sports, pretty basic stuff,” U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi said during a press conference, adding that it is an issue of sports as well as safety. 

As reported by Lauren McCauley of the Maine Morning Star, the Justice Department is launching a civil suit against the Maine Department of Education for violating Title IX. "Title IX does not reference trans people directly," McCauley wrote, "but the Trump Administration has interpreted Maine’s policy as discrimination against cisgender girls. 

Maine governor Janet Mills characterized the suit as the “latest, expected salvo in an unprecedented campaign to pressure the State of Maine to ignore the Constitution 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 states’ rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will, instead of upholding the law,” Mills said in a statement.

Bre Kidman-Danvers, executive director of MaineTransNet, told the Morning Star, “What the executive branch is actually doing at this moment is trampling over” the rights of Congress to dictate federal spending and “unilaterally deciding how laws should be interpreted,” which is the job of the judiciary.

Per McCauley's reporting, Maine attorney general Aaron Frey said in a statement Wednesday that he looks forward to representing the state, adding “this matter is about the protections afforded by Title IX and the Maine Human Rights Act,” which includes gender as a protected class.

Frey said he is confident the state is “acting in accordance with those laws,” a position that he said is bolstered by the “complete lack of any legal citation supporting the Administration’s position in its own complaint,” the Morning Star reported.

On Friday, the Maine Attorney General’s Office sent a letter to the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights saying it would not comply with the department’s proposed resolution agreement, which would require the state to end its transgender protections. Wrote McCauley, "The state also doubled down on its assertion that the Trump Administration’s interpretation of Title IX does not have legal standing."