Last week, Gov. Paul LePage amped up a legal fight against Attorney General Janet Mills, arguing that she didn’t have his permission to join a lawsuit about young immigrants.
LePage forgets that Mills works for the people of Maine, not him. In Maine, the attorney general is elected by the Legislature, not appointed by the governor.
State law makes clear, and a recent court ruling reiterated, that the attorney general does not need the governor’s permission to take legal action to protect the state’s people and their interests.
The disagreement is over the opposite positions Mills and LePage took last year on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as young children from deportation. President Donald Trump has tried to wind down the program. A federal judge left the program in place earlier this year, but he said it is likely unconstitutional.
Mills joined California’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over DACA. Most of the nearly 700,000 people covered by the program, some of whom live in Maine, are either employed or in school; many have served in the military. They contribute $42 billion annually to the U.S. GDP.
LePage sued Mills in state court, arguing that Mills’ actions violate a section of Maine law that seems to force the attorney general’s office to gain the permission of the Legislature or governor to appear in tribunals other than state courts.
Maine Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy ruled against LePage in that case on Oct. 19 largely because she found that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court has interpreted the attorney general’s power broadly in the past.
LePage says he will appeal that ruling.
As this legal battle drags on, it is important to remember that LePage has joined lawsuits to take rights away from Americans, especially transgender Americans.
This summer, LePage joined 15 officials from other states in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that the Civil Rights Act does not protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender employees from workplace discrimination. Under their arguments, LGBT workers can be fired because of their gender identity.
LePage joined the lawsuit as an individual and his views do not represent the state’s views. Maine law bans workplace discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. However, he is listed as “Paul L. LePage, Governor of Maine,” thus sullying the state’s reputation as a welcoming and tolerant place. His middle initial is actually R, not L.
Previously, LePage joined a lawsuit seeking to bar a transgender student in Virginia from being able to use the bathroom that corresponded to his identity. He also joined a suit that sought to stop Obama administration rules that requires schools to allow transgender students to use facilities that match their gender identity.
The governor’s views in these cases are counter to Maine’s tradition of acceptance. They are also counter to state law. In 2005, voters rejected an effort to remove “sexual orientation” from the Maine Human Rights Act.
There has been much more important work that demanded LePage’s attention during his nearly eight years as governor than joining a mean-spirited campaign to restrict the rights of LGBT Americans or fighting with the attorney general to support the deportation of young people brought to America decades ago.
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