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After issuing an executive order barring transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports last month, President Trump targeted the state for scrutiny.
Jenna Russell
The Trump administration has concluded that Maine is violating federal law by allowing transgender athletes to play on women’s teams, the state attorney general’s office said on Thursday.
President Trump had targeted the state for scrutiny last month, soon after issuing an executive order on Feb. 5 barring transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. A conservative Maine lawmaker drew attention to the state’s transgender athletes with a contentious social media post on Feb. 17; days later, the president sparred with Gov. Janet Mills over the issue at a White House event.
“See you in court,” Ms. Mills, a Democrat, told Mr. Trump, after he said that she had “better comply” with his order, or he would cut federal funding for Maine.
That same day, the federal Office of Civil Rights announced that it was initiating a review of the Maine Department of Education, including the University of Maine system, “based on information that Maine intends to defy this executive order” and “will continue to allow biological males to compete in women’s sports.”
Four days later, on Feb. 25, the Office of Civil Rights notified Ms. Mills and the state attorney general by email that it had issued a “notice of violation” against the state’s education department for failing to comply with Title IX, the civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs, including school sports. The notice was first reported on Wednesday by the Bangor Daily News; a spokeswoman for Aaron Frey, the Maine attorney general, confirmed it on Thursday.
The spokeswoman, Danna Hayes, said the office would not comment further.
A spokesman for Governor Mills confirmed on Thursday that federal officials did not contact her office, or the state’s Department of Education, during the course of the four-day compliance review.
The governor had appeared to anticipate the outcome. In the statement she issued at the start of the investigation, she said, “I imagine that the outcome of this politically directed investigation is all but predetermined.”
It remained unclear if the finding would result in any loss of funding for Maine. The notice sent to Maine officials described federal funding that the state’s education department receives, and outlined a process for referring violations to the Department of Justice “when noncompliance cannot be corrected by informal means.” But it did not specify the next steps in the process.
The letter said that Maine had violated Title IX “by denying female student athletes in the State of Maine an equal opportunity to participate in, and obtain the benefits of participation, ‘in any interscholastic, intercollegiate, club or intramural athletics’ offered by the state by allowing male athletes to compete against female athletes in current and future athletic events.”
It continued, “Male athletes, by comparison, are not subject to heightened safety or competitive concerns, which only affect females.”
Policies on transgender athlete participation in sports vary from state to state. Since 2020, 25 states have passed laws restricting the ability of such athletes to participate in school sports in accordance with their gender identities. In most Democrat-led states, high school associations set their own eligibility policies based on the particular sport and the level of play. Nearly all Republicans and 67 percent of Democrats believe transgender women should not compete in women’s sports, according to a January poll from The New York Times and Ipsos.
Following Mr. Trump’s executive order last month, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would investigate the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State University for civil rights violations. The department has also announced investigations into a school district in Washington state, the Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation.
In a statement last month when the federal review was initiated, the governor said that her administration would fight any effort to withhold funding.
“If the president attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of federal funding,” she said in the statement, “my administration and the attorney general will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides.”
She added, “The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the president’s threats.”
Amy Harmon contributed reporting.
Jenna Russell is the lead reporter covering New England for The Times. She is based near Boston. More about Jenna Russell
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