Maine officials told President Donald Trump’s administration Friday the state will not go along with the Republican’s demands on banning transgender girls from sports.
The response sets up a likely court battle and an attempt by the U.S. Department of Justice to punish Maine for not changing its policies that allow transgender girls to compete in sports. The U.S. Department of Education had given the Maine education department and Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office until Friday to say whether the state will comply with Trump’s demands.
The U.S. Department of Justice will seek to punish Maine in response to Friday’s notice, but a court will ultimately settle the standoff. The U.S. Department of Education also said Friday it will begin an administrative proceeding that seeks to terminate Maine’s federal funding for K-12 schools.
Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster told Bradley Burke, the regional director for the federal Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, in a Friday letter that the state reviewed the federal government’s draft agreement from March 31 and will not sign the agreement nor propose any revisions.
“We agree that we are at an impasse,” Forster wrote. “Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams. Your letters to date do not cite a single case that so holds.”
Trump clashed with Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, during a White House event in February and threatened to pull federal funding from Maine if the state does not follow his executive order seeking to ban to transgender girls from sports. Trump is making an untested legal claim that allowing transgender girls to compete violates the landmark Title IX law from 1972 that bans sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding.
Trump sparred with Mills after Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, made a viral social media post singling out a transgender Maine high school student who won a state track and field title. Various federal agencies then launched investigations that swiftly found Maine and its schools are violating Title IX, but state officials noted federal investigators did not question them before asserting the state is violating the law. The Maine Principals’ Association, which oversees scholastic sports, said two transgender girls are competing this school year.
Frey spokesperson Danna Hayes said Friday the state will not comment further at this time.
The U.S. Department of Education said in a news release Friday afternoon it will also begin an “administrative proceeding” to handle the termination of Maine’s federal funding for K-12 schools, including “formula and discretionary grants.” An administrative judge will handle that issue, while a different federal court will handle the DOJ matter.
“Gov. Mills would have done well to adhere to the wisdom embedded in the old idiom — be careful what you wish for,” said Craig Trainor, the federal Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights. “Now she will see the Trump Administration in court.”