Legal Standoff: DOJ Files Lawsuit Against Maine Over Policy On Male Athletes In Female Sports Following State AG Lawsuit Against GOP Admin
(L-Top) Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey. (Photo via: National
Association of Attorneys General) / (L-Bottom) Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME).
(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) / (R) Demonstrators supporting
restrictions on transgender student athletes.
Attorney General Pam Bondi stated on Wednesday that the Justice
Department has launched a lawsuit against Maine to challenge the state’s
policy on transgender-identifying athletes participating in women’s and
girls’ sports.
The complaint, which asserts that Maine’s policy is unconstitutional
under Title IX, is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration
to draw attention to inequality in female sports, in addition to the
safety concerns it poses.
“The State of Maine, through its Department of Education, is openly
and defiantly flouting federal anti-discrimination law by enforcing
policies that require girls to compete against boys in athletic
competitions designated exclusively for girls,” the lawsuit states. “By
prioritizing gender identity over biological reality, Maine’s policies
deprive girl athletes of fair competition, deny them equal athletic
opportunities, and expose them to heightened risks of physical injury
and psychological harm.”
Alongside conservative activist Riley Gaines and other Maine parents
and students who have protested the state’s regulations surrounding
biological males competing in female sports, Bondi made the announcement
of the lawsuit.
“The Department of Justice will not sit by when women are
discriminated against in sports. This is about sports. This is also
about these young women’s personal safety,” Bondi said in remarks at
DOJ. “I met many of these women throughout the past weeks and months,
and what they have been through is horrific.”
Bondi previously sent warning letters to state officials in Maine,
California, and Minnesota in February, directing them to “comply with
federal anti-discrimination laws that require them to keep men out of
women’s sports.”
Governor Janet Mills (D-Maine) has denounced the efforts as “administrative overreach” from the Trump administration.
“For decades — first as a District Attorney, as Attorney General, and
now as Governor — I have fought tirelessly for the rights of women and
girls, for the health and well-being of children and families, and
defending the Constitution of Maine and the Constitution of the United
States,” Mills said in a statement on Wednesday. “My Administration and
Maine’s Attorney General will vigorously defend our state against the
action announced today from the Department of Justice,” she added.
Mills had previously downplayed the issue of gender dysphoric male
athletes competing in women’s and girls’ sports, despite the fact that
in February, a man who identifies as a transgender woman from Maine’s
Greely High School won a state championship in pole vaulting in the
girls’ division.
“Are you not going to comply with that?” Trump questioned Mills
directly during a White House meeting in February with the country’s
governors, when he was discussing his executive order prohibiting
transgender athletes from participating in female sports.
In response, she claimed that she would abide by both federal and state laws.
“Well… we are the federal law,” Trump reminded her. “You better do
it. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding
at all if you don’t.”
She then responded by saying: “See you in court.”
“Good,” the GOP president replied. “I’ll see you in court. I look
forward to that. That should be an easy one. And enjoy your life after
governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
In early April, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey also filed a
lawsuit against the Trump administration for freezing federal funding
over the state’s refusal to comply with President Donald Trump’s
transgender athlete ban.
This Department of Justice will fight for women if the state of Maine will not.
Boys should not break records in women’s sports.
Boys should not deny scholarship opportunities to dedicated female athletes.
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