Washington (AP) – The Trump administration sued Maine on Wednesday
The lawsuit follows the feud between the Republican administration and the democratic governor Janet Mills, who led to the decisive federal financing and a collision in the White House when she said President Donald Trump: “We will see her in court.”
The political overtones of the moment were clear, with Attorney General Pam Bondi – and several athletes who joined the stage in the Ministry of Justice – cited the matter as a priority for Trump. According to Bondi, other states, including Minnesota and California, could also be sued.
“This was a big problem for him,” said Bondi about the president. “Pretty simple, girls play in girls’ sports, boys play in boys sports. Women play in women’s sports, men play in men’s sports.”
Trump campaigned against the participation of transgender athletes in sports in his race around 2024. As President, he signed Executive Orders to do this and to utilize a unyielding definition of the sexes and not for gender for the federal government. The orders are challenged in court.
The educational agency of Trump’s departments for education and health and human services violates the federal anti -discrimination law. The Ministry of Justice asks the Court of ordering the state to head all schools in order to prohibit the participation of men in sports competitions intended for women.
Maine’s officials have refused to agree to a settlement that would have banned transgender students from sport, and argue that the law does not prevent the schools from participating in transgender athletes. Mills said on Wednesday that the lawsuit was expected and is part of a Washington pressure campaign to force Maine to ignore her own human rights laws.
“This matter was never about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as it was claimed that it is about the rights of the state and the defense of the rule of law against a federal government that is intended to impose its will instead of maintaining the law,” said Mills in a statement.
The Attorney General of Maine, Aaron Frey, said on Wednesday that he was confident that Maine was in accordance with the state and the federal law.
“Our position continues to be strengthened by the complete lack of any legal citation that supports the position of the administration in its own complaint,” he said in an explanation. “While the president has issued an executive order that reflects his own interpretation of the law, everyone who has the most fundamental understanding of American citizenship understands neither laws nor the law.”
In the government’s complaint, the government is an examples as an example of a transgender athlete, which in February the first place in Pole Vault at Maine’s indoor athletics meeting and a transgender athlete who started to take part in female Cross -Country races in the federal state in the federal state in the 5 -kM times of women.
The lawsuit reflects a sturdy philosophical turn from the position on gender identity issues that were recorded in the democratic administration.
According to President Joe Biden, the government tried to extend civil rights policy to protect transgender people. In 2016, the Ministry of Justice, which was then headed by General Prosecutor Loretta Lynch, sued North Carolina because of a law according to the transgender public toilets and shower that corresponds to the gender of her birth certificate.
In February, Trump signed an executive order in which “men from women’s sports are kept away”, which gives federal authorities a wide range to ensure the units, receive federal financing, the titles IX in accordance with the interpretation of the “gender” by the government as a “” gender “as a gender that was assigned at birth.
Bondi was accompanied by the former swimmer of the University of Kentucky Riley Gaines at the press conference, who appeared as the public face of the opposition against transgender athletes. In a NCAA championship 2022, Gaines dealt with a transgender athlete for fifth place and testified in front of the legislator across the country on this topic. You and other framework the topic than women’s rights.
During a meeting in February with the governors, Trump threatened to pull the federal financing of Maine if the state did not comply with its executive regulation. Mills replied: “We will see them in court.”
Maine sued the administration this month after the Ministry of Agriculture announced that the state’s education programs had been spending some money for the state’s education programs, since the administration had failed to comply with Maine to comply with the law on IX. A federal judge instructed the administration on Friday to remove funds for a Maine nutritional program.
Questions about the rights of the transgender people have become an essential political issue in the past five years.
Twenty-six states have laws or guidelines that stop transgender girls from the girls’ school sports. GOP-controlled states also prohibit gender health care for transgender-mate-year-olds and the restriction of utilize in schools and sometimes in other public buildings.
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press Writer Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
