(The Center Square) — The U.S. Attorney General’s office is threatening to sue Maine if the state does not stop allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls’ and womens’ sports.
In a letter to Gov. Janet Mills, Attorney General Pam Bondi reiterated the Trump administration’s position that Maine and other states that are allowing girls to compete against boys in sports and athletic events are in violation of Title IX and the Constitution, which she said: “is the supreme Law of the Land.”
“Therefore it does not matter if Maine state law allows, or even requires, state athletic associations or other similar entities to require girls to compete against boys and sports and athletic events,” she wrote. “Where federal and state law conflict, state and state entities must follow federal law.”
Bondi said that dual investigations are being conducted by the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services determine that Maine girls “were denied equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events,” the Justice Department will take the state to court.
“Maine should be on notice,” she wrote in the two-page letter. “If these or other federal investigations show that the relevant Maine entities are indeed denying girls an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them to compete against boys, the Department of Justice stands ready to take all appropriate action to enforce federal law.”
The attorney general’s threat of litigation comes less than a week after Mills and President Donald Trump clashed at the White House over federal funding and transgender student athletes.
At that meeting, Mills told Trump that she would not abide by his order banning transgender athletes in women’s sports, telling the president, “see you in court” in front of a group of bipartisan governors.
Shortly after taking office last month, Trump signed an executive order — “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” — that bans transgender athletes of all ages from competing on girls and women’s sports teams. The order threatened to withhold federal funding from states and schools that don’t comply with it.
Earlier this week, a Maine Republican lawmaker filed a bill that would bar transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. It would also require public schools and colleges to designate bathrooms, changing rooms and dorms as male-only or female-only, with some exceptions.
“It will automatically bring Maine into compliance with Title IX, federal anti-discrimination laws, the NCAA policy, and the president’s executive order,” state Rep. Elizabeth Caruso, R-Caratunk, the bill’s sponsor, said in remarks. “Mainers and Americans alike are more united on this issue than any other. Male athletes are taking opportunities from female athletes.”
To be sure, the measure faces long odds of coming up for a vote in the Democratic-controlled Legislature and would likely be vetoed by Mills if it reaches her desk.
