Looks like Janet Mills will get her wish. Two months ago, Donald Trump warned the governor of Maine that he would cut off federal education funding to the state if she and the legislature didn't keep biological males out of female-only spaces. "We'll see you in court," Mills replied.
“They are failing to protect women”: @AGPamBondi calls Maine’s Title IX violations a public safety issue. pic.twitter.com/9PEo0QvgaN
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) April 16, 2025
The Trump administration announced a lawsuit Wednesday against Maine’s education department for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.
The lawsuit follows weeks of feuding between the Republican administration and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills that has led to threats to cut off crucial federal funding and a clash at the White House when she told the president: “We’ll see you in court.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the legal action at a news conference in Washington alongside former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has emerged as a public face of the opposition to transgender athletes.
Reliance on Title IX will depend on whether the courts take the word "sex" seriously and literally. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education, and requires that colleges and universities that receive federal funds provide equal opportunities to men and women in all aspects of education -- including athletics. That requirement has forced schools in the past to balance slots in athletic competitions, in some cases forcing men's teams to shut down to resolve conflicts.
If courts take the word "sex" in Title IX literally, then admitting biological males to female competitions violates this formula. The Biden administration tried to get around that by reinterpreting "sex" as "gender" in Title IX and arguing that gender is an individual self-identification. That interpretation, however, not only never got discussed in Congress when passing the Title IX statute, it would also destroy its purpose in protecting access to educational opportunities for women.
Judges are already coming to the same conclusion. Two federal district courts threw out Biden's attempt to rewrite Title IX in January, ruing that Congress would have to amend the law if it wants to replace "sex" with "gender." One judge offered a scathing critique on the attempt:
Chief Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Kentucky district court, appointed by President George W. Bush, criticized the administration’s attempt to reinterpret Title IX.
“It is abundantly clear that discrimination on the basis of sex means discrimination on the basis of being a male or female,” Reeves wrote. “Expanding the meaning of ‘on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ turns Title IX on its head.”
The ruling comes after U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty issued a preliminary injunction in a related case in June. Doughty, based in Louisiana, argued the Biden administration’s changes violated the separation of powers and were inconsistent with Title IX’s original intent. He stated that the law “was written and intended to protect biological women from discrimination.”
If Maine is violating Title IX -- and it certainly appears to be, willfully -- then the federal government can withhold education funding until it complies. In fact, that's the threat behind the compliance strings that such funding includes. Mills seems to think otherwise:
"Because there are two, maybe two, trans athletes competing in Maine schools right now, they decided to shut off funding for the school nutrition program, the school lunch program, entirely," Mills said in an interview earlier this week. "The law says if you don't like what a state is doing over here, you can't just take the funds away over here."
Well, we'll see what happens in court, but Maine doesn't have an entitlement to that funding. It comes from the federal government, and it comes with conditions, the most basic of which is to comply with federal laws. That is why states and schools had to start counting male and female athletics opportunities in the 1980s, and in some cases eliminate men's teams to rebalance those opportunities. If Maine doesn't like the interpretation of Title IX, then they can fund their own programs rather than get federal subsidies for them. Courts may be inclined to limit funding suspensions to actual cases of violations, but that's a tough application when the state declares that it intends to keep violating federal law in all circumstances.
This will likely force the Supreme Court to finally rule on the difference in Title IX between biological sex and declared genders. If Maine pushes this fight to the finish, they are not likely to enjoy the outcome.
Update: Athlete and activist Riley Gaines attended the briefing and spoke after Bondi:
. @Riley_Gaines_ joined @PamBondi at the DOJ press briefing, where they are announcing a civil lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education for failing to protect women and women’s sports...
— Salem News Channel (@WatchSalemNews) April 16, 2025
GAINES: "I'm frustrated that we have to be here, that we as women have to stand… pic.twitter.com/qFkxWOgW2X
"I'm frustrated that we have to be here, that we as women have to stand before you all on national television, demanding equal opportunities, demanding privacy in areas of undressing, demanding safety in our sports."
That was why Congress passed Title IX in the first place. The Left has sold out women in its pursuit of Queer Theory and Marxist revolution, and Democrat leadership has sold out to the Left. Time to put a stop to it and force Democrat leadership to suffer the consequences of its radicalization.
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