Maine sues Trump administration in 1st case involving Title IX dispute
Frey's office said funds withheld by the Trump administration are used to feed children in schools, child care centers and after-school programming, as well as disabled adults in congregate settings.
It is the first lawsuit to directly result from the Trump administration's actions targeting Maine over transgender athletes in women's sports that stem from a confrontation between the president and Gov. Janet Mills in February.
"Under the banner of keeping children safe, the Trump administration is illegally withholding grant funds that go to keeping children fed," Frey said in a written statement. "This is just another example where no law or consequence appears to restrain the administration as it seeks capitulation to its lawlessness. The president and his Cabinet secretaries do not make the law and they are not above the law, and this action is necessary to remind the president that Maine will not be bullied into violating the law."
The suit filed in the U.S. District Court of Maine in Bangor comes less than a week after USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the agency was freezing its funding to Maine for certain "administrative and technological functions in schools." The letter Rollins sent to Mills on Wednesday did not specify how much money has been frozen or what programs it will impact.
Though Rollins' letter said the freeze would not impact programs providing food to children, the Maine Department of Education said Friday that it had lost access to funds for administrative staff overseeing the feeding programs. Critics said even though the USDA is continuing to provide reimbursements for the school meals themselves, the program will struggle to feed children without those workers.
The Maine DOE was "still working to determine the extent" of possible impacts to other funds, including grants supporting its Child and Adult Care Food Program, Farm to School state formula grant, equipment assistance grant and technology funds, spokesperson Chloe Teboe said in an email Monday.
The Trump administration is arguing that Maine policy on transgender athletes violates the federal Title IX law because it violates the rights of women and girls.
"You cannot openly violate federal law against discrimination in education and expect federal funding to continue unabated. Your defiance of federal law has cost your state, which is bound by Title IX in educational programming," Rollins wrote in the letter. "This is only the beginning, though you are free to end it at any time by protecting women and girls in compliance with federal law."
Frey, however, argues that Rollins has not provided any legal basis for her interpretation of Title IX, which would exclude transgender women from women's sports.
"And her interpretation is wrong," Frey said in the complaint. "Indeed, several federal courts have held that Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause require schools to permit transgender girls and women to play on girls' and women's sports."
Frey also said that the USDA failed to adhere to federal rules requiring certain steps to take place before the agency can revoke funds.
"Instead, without any prior notice, investigation, administrative proceeding, or other semblance of legally sufficient process, the secretary simply sent a letter to Maine's governor announcing the freeze," Frey wrote in the complaint.
That procedural failing renders the question of how to interpret Title IX irrelevant in this instance, Frey states. He requested the court vacate Rollins' order and institute a preliminary or permanent injunction to stop the freeze of additional funding.
Frey also requested a temporary restraining order blocking Rollins and the USDA — the defendants named in the suit — from freezing or terminating other federal funds "without complying with the legally required procedures."
Danna Hayes, spokesperson for the Office of the Maine Attorney General, said she did not know when the next steps would take place in the court proceedings. She said that Maine was alone in filing this lawsuit, unlike several previous cases against the Trump administration, in which Maine joined broad coalitions of states.
The USDA did not return requests for comment Monday.
Maine has been the target of multiple federal investigations, many hinging on Title IX, following a public clash between Mills and President Donald Trump at the White House in February.
At the event, Trump called out Mills and demanded she comply with his executive order designed to bar transgender athletes from women's sports. Mills said she would follow the law, to which Trump countered that "We are the federal law."
"See you in court," Mills said.
Maine's allowance of transgender women to compete stems from the Maine Human Rights Act, which has included some form of protections for individuals' gender identity since 2005. The law currently prohibits discrimination in education "and all extracurricular activities" on the basis of one's gender identity.
Staff Writer Riley Board contributed reporting.
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