A few days ago, we brought you the sad case of Maine Governor Janet Mills and her dust-up with Donald Trump at the White House as part of a meeting of the National Governors Association.
Within seven hours of telling Trump she'd sue him in court if he withheld federal funding for her continued violation of Title IX, Governor Mills was advised by both the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture that formal investigations into her violation of Title IX had begun, and could lead to pulling upwards of $280 million dollars of federal funding to Mainers.
As I said in my column on Monday, this is all going on before Attorney General Pam Bondi even gets her feet wet on the controversy and brings the full weight of the Department of Justice to bear on Maine's refusal to understand the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution trumps 20-year old Maine statutes. Well, Tuesday afternoon, the letter announcing the hammer that was coming was fired off by A.G. Bondi.
Pam Bondi vows to bring the hammer of justice to Maine.
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) February 25, 2025
Here's the full letter she wrote to @GovJanetMills: pic.twitter.com/e79oa4AXKU
In her letter, Bondi also notes that in addition to investigations by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Education, HHS' Civil Rights Division was investigating Maine as well. The squeeze from the federal government is already being felt in Augusta, and Bondi's letter was the official 'we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way' notice, with the hard way being right around the corner if Mills does not relent.
But the story gets more draconian, and yet illustrative as to what lengths Democrats will go to in order to restrict speech in the name of muh democracy when it comes to the transgender movement.
Laurel Libby is a Republican member of Maine's State House. It is a 151-member body, currently controlled by Democrats. The make-up is 76-D, 73-R, with one independent and one unenrolled member. Libby has been the catalyst, as a parent of five children herself, in drawing attention to the travesty of biological males being allowed to compete in girls' sports. Tuesday night, Democrats in the chamber moved to stifle her.
On Monday night, the 17th, the Pine Tree State's track and field championships were held, and with the help of their class-B pole vaulter, a boy who competed as a male last year but now is identifying as a female, easily won the girls' event. He barely made top five competing as a male.
Newsweek reported the story, including the name of the athlete in question. Here's a bit of their coverage.
The controversy has also drawn attention to Maine's policies on transgender athletes. The Maine Principals' Association (MPA), which governs high school sports in the state, recently announced it would not enforce Trump's executive order banning biological males from competing in girls' sports. This decision contradicts the federal directive, which warned that schools allowing transgender participation could face a loss of federal funding.
"The decision by the Maine Principals' Association is outrageous. It violates President Trump's executive order and jeopardizes the safety and privacy of female athletes," Libby said.
The Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS), an advocacy group that opposes transgender athletes competing in women's sports, criticized Spencer's victory. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the group stated, "Maine awards the girls' state pole vault title to a male athlete competing in the girls' division. Greely High School's male star vaulter, Katie Spencer, not only won the event but also helped secure his girls' team the overall state championship by just one point."
The Portland Press Herald, and other local media in Maine, also reported the name of the athlete. The fact that the name of the high school student, obviously a minor, is used in reportage about a sporting event is not in and of itself newsworthy nor illegal. But because Rep. Libby used a Facebook post showing the biological male standing on top of the state championship podium as a female, a year after coming in 5th place as a male, again all open source information, Maine Democrats used a point of order and Maine House Rules to put Libby in the penalty box.
The Maine Democrat Majority has just moved to censure me, for speaking out against their failure to protect Maine girls and keep biological males out of girls' sports.
— Rep. Laurel Libby (@laurel_libby) February 26, 2025
Let me be clear: I will not be silenced and I will not allow the voices of Maine girls to be silenced. pic.twitter.com/Zdy2usGuo6
After 10 minutes of this, not allowing Libby to speak unless it's directly germane to whatever the Democrats want to talk about at this particular moment, the Democratic Speaker, Ryan Fecteau, dropped the hammer.
.@GovJanetMills's campaign to cancel both girls' sports *and* anyone who speaks out against her radical agenda continues...
— Rep. Laurel Libby (@laurel_libby) February 26, 2025
🧵 pic.twitter.com/wlYp71CZIt
Here is what Maine House Rule 401, part 11, dealing with "Rights and Duties of Members", says.
"Rights and Duties of Members" and states: "Breach of rules. When any member is guilty of a breach of any of the rules and orders of the House and the House has determined that the member has violated a rule or order, that member may not be allowed to vote or speak, unless by way of excuse for the breach, until the member has made satisfaction."
If we were talking about Lia/William Thomas, the Pennsylvania swimmer, the controversy would not have resulted in censure, because Thomas is not a minor. Maine's Democrats are quashing Libby here because of the age of Spencer. According to Maine Democrats, apparently, you may only invoke the name, image, and likeness of an athlete to report accomplishments. Any underlying fact that might explain how that accomplishment took place that threatens the transgender movement is strictly verboten.
Libby refused to comply with the House Democrats. She will not apologize for using a Facebook post that included public, published information. She did, however, do the next best thing. She gave the speech she would have given on the floor of the chamber out in the hallways of the State Capitol in Augusta.
My full thoughts on @GovJanetMills and the Maine Democrat Majority's attempt to cancel me and silence the voices of Maine girls: pic.twitter.com/GSQ1bBCbJz
— Rep. Laurel Libby (@laurel_libby) February 26, 2025
Justice Louis Brandeis famously said in a concurring opinion in 1927's Whitney V. California,
If there be a time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.
To date, Rep. Libby's speech has been viewed on X over 65,000 times. It's hard to imagine that more than a dozen would have seen her give it on the floor of the Maine State House had the Democrats not censured her in order to protect Janet Mills and Maine Democrats' doomed strategy of defending the indefensible.
With a three-seat majority, Democrats are so locked in to staking out the 20% ground on a 80-20 issue breaking against them that they'll willing to silence any dissent by force, if necessary.
People and parties react in different ways to political pressure. Democrats in Augusta are showing that they are indeed under pressure, and are cracking under it.
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