Maine, Trump administration ‘at an impasse' after state refuses to comply with trans athlete policy
Supporters march and wave signs after a rally in Cumberland, Maine on Sunday, March 23, 2025, calling on Maine lawmakers, and local MSAD51 school officials, to support transgender student athletes. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star)
Maine will not be changing its policy on transgender athletes and thus is 'at an impasse' with the federal government, according to a letter from the Maine Attorney General's Office to the U.S. Department of Education Friday.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights set Friday as the deadline for the Maine Department of Education to comply with a resolution agreement proposed last month that requires the state to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order banning trans girls from playing girls' sports. If the state does not comply, the administration has said it will refer the case to the Department of Justice and rescind federal funding.
'We will not sign the Resolution Agreement, and we do not have revisions to counter propose. We agree that we are at an impasse,' wrote Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster in a letter to Bradley Burke, regional director for the agency's Office for Civil Rights.
Further, Forster argued that Title IX, the federal law banning sex-based discrimination on which the Trump administration is basing its argument, does not legally preclude transgender inclusion in athletics.
'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,' she said.
Citing several federal court rulings — including a 2024 ruling in New Hampshire, Tirrell v. Edelblut — she added that 'various federal courts have held that Title IX and/or the Equal Protection Clause require schools to allow such participation.'
Since Gov. Janet Mills and Trump got into a heated exchange over the state's trans athlete policy, legal experts have watched the case to see how the Trump administration would respond to the state-level pushback.
'We just need an answer at this point as to, 'Does the Trump administration have the authority to do what it's doing when it comes to fast tracking the removal of federal funds?'' said Jackie Wernz, a former lawyer for the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights who now represents school districts nationwide in these types of cases, in a previous interview with Maine Morning Star.
'This is just unprecedented, and we're not following the process that we're used to. So I think it's going to be really helpful for courts to start weighing in on whether or not they have the authority to do this.'
While the U.S. Department of Education has not specified how much federal funding is at stake, it awarded $347 million to Maine entities in fiscal year 2024, according to the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
Several federal agencies have launched investigations into Maine's alleged violation of Title IX. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture froze funding to Maine school programs over alleged violations of federal law, over which the Maine Attorney General's Office has filed suit.
In addition to the Title IX investigations, numerous other federal agencies have cut funding to programs in Maine in apparent retaliation for the state's noncompliance.
Earlier this week, the Department of Justice terminated several grants to the Maine Department of Corrections because of the state policy related to transgender detainees, which it approaches on a case-by-case basis.
And the former acting director of the Social Security Administration admitted he deliberately sought to punish Maine by temporarily suspending the 'Enumeration at Birth' process, which allows parents to check a box on a form shortly after a child's birth in order to receive a mailed Social Security card.
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