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NextImg:State of Maine Referred to DOJ After Refusing to Sign Title IX Agreement

Less than two months after Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills challenged President Donald Trump with a defiant “we’ll see you in court,” Mills might be getting her wish.

The federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has referred the Pine Tree State to the Justice Department for enforcement action over Maine’s refusal to comply with policies on banning males from playing in female sports, WMTW-TV reported Friday.

And it could cost Maine dearly.

At issue is Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs receiving federal funds.

Under the Trump administration, inclusion of self-proclaimed transgender athletes — males “identifying” as females — in female sports is considered discrimination against girls and women.

Maine’s state education department had a deadline of Friday to sign an agreement “to issue a directive forbidding schools from allowing transgender students who were assigned male at birth to participate in girls’ sports,” WMTW reported, using the convoluted language of “assigned male at birth” to describe “boys” and “men.”

When the deadline passed, the Trump administration took action.

“The Department has given Maine every opportunity to come into compliance with Title IX, but the state’s leaders have stubbornly refused to do so, choosing instead to prioritize an extremist ideological agenda over their students’ safety, privacy, and dignity,” acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement, according to WMTW.

“The Maine Department of Education will now have to defend its discriminatory practices before a Department administrative law judge and in a federal court against the Justice Department.”

The confrontation has been percolating for weeks.

At a Feb. 21 meeting at the White House, where Trump hosted governors from throughout the nation, the president asked Mills specifically if her state was going to comply with his executive order banning boys and men from female sports.

“You’d better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,” Trump said.

“We’ll see you in court,” Mills responded.

Beyond referring Maine to the DOJ, the federal DOE “will begin a proceeding to try to stop the Maine DOE from receiving federal K-12 education funding — including formula and discretionary grants,” WMTW reported.

Related:
Trump Admin Cuts State Off from Federal Funds After Refusal to Follow Executive Order

Maine’s government is staunchly Democratic territory. Besides Mills in the governor’s office, the state House and Senate are controlled by Democrats.

And it was Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows who tried to ban Trump from the ballot in her state under the argument that he’d engaged in “insurrection” following the 2020 election.

That was slapped down first by her own state Supreme Court and then by the U.S. Supreme Court.

(Trump won the GOP primary in Maine with 72.6 percent of the vote to challenger Nikki Haley’s 25.6 percent, according to CNN. In the general election, Trump won 45.5 percent of the vote to then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ 52.4 percent, according to CNN. Because the state does not have a winner-take-all system, Trump won one of its four Electoral College votes.)

Now, the state’s education department is potentially in the crosshairs of a Republican administration with a Department of Justice run by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

And Bondi’s position on Title IX and transgenders is crystal clear.

“This Department of Justice will defend women and does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law,” she said in a statement in February, as Politico reported at the time.

“We will leverage every legal option necessary to ensure state compliance with federal law and President Trump’s executive order.”

Now, the country is going to see how much weight those words carry.

“Governor Mills would have done well to adhere to the wisdom embedded in the old idiom — be careful what you wish for,” Trainor said in his statement, according to WMTW.

“Now she will see the Trump administration in court.”

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