Trump administration sues Maine over participation of transgender athletes in girls sports

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday sued Maine for not complying with the government's push to ban transgender athletes in girls and women's 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 President Donald Trump: “We’ll see you in court.”

The political overtones of the moment were clear, with Attorney General Pam Bondi — and one of the athletes who joined her on stage at the Justice Department — citing the matter as a priority for Trump. Bondi said other states, including Minnesota and California, could be sued as well.

"President Trump, before he was elected, this has been a huge issue for him,” Bondi said. “Pretty simple: girls play in girls' sports, boys play in boys' sports. Men play in men's sports, women play in women’s sports.”

Trump campaigned against the participation of transgender athletes in sports in his 2024 race. As president, he has signed executive orders to prohibit that and to use a rigid definition of the sexes, rather than gender, for federal government purposes. The orders are being challenged in court.

Trump’s departments of Education and Health and Human Services have said Maine's education agency is violating the federal Title IX antidiscrimination law by allowing transgender girls to participate on girls teams. The Justice Department is asking the court to order the state to direct all schools to prohibit the participation of males in athletic competition designated for females.

Maine officials have refused to agree with a settlement that would have banned transgender students from sports, arguing that the law does not prevent schools from letting transgender athletes participate. Mills said Wednesday that the lawsuit was expected and is part of a pressure campaign by Washington to force Maine to ignore its own human rights laws.

"This matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as has been claimed, it is about states rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will, instead of upholding the law," Mills said in a statement.

Maine's attorney general, Aaron Frey, said Wednesday he is confident Maine is acting in accordance with state and federal law.

“Our position is further bolstered by the complete lack of any legal citation supporting the Administration’s position in its own complaint,” he said in a statement. “While the President issued an executive order that reflects his own interpretation of the law, anyone with the most basic understanding of American civics understands the president does not create law nor interpret law. ”

The government's complaint cites as examples the case of a transgender athlete who in February won first place in pole vault at a Maine indoor track and field meet and a transgender athlete who last year began competing in female cross country races in the state and placed first in a girl's 5K run.

The lawsuit reflects a stark philosophical turnabout from the position on gender identity issues taken during Democratic administrations.

Under President Joe Biden, the government tried to extend civil rights policies to protect transgender people. In 2016, the Justice Department, then led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, sued North Carolina over a law that required transgender people to use public restrooms and showers that corresponded the gender on their birth certificate.

Trump signed an executive order in February, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” that gave federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with his administration’s interpretation of “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

Bondi was joined at the news conference by former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has emerged as a public face of the opposition to transgender athletes. Gaines tied with a transgender athlete for fifth place in a 2022 NCAA championship and has testified before lawmakers across the country on the issue. She and others frame the issue as women’s rights.

During a February meeting with governors, Trump threatened to pull federal funding from Maine if the state did not comply with his executive order. Mills responded: “We’ll see you in court.”

Maine sued the administration this month after the Department of Agriculture said it was pausing some money for the state’s educational programs because of what the administration contended was Maine’s failure to comply with the Title IX law. A federal judge on Friday ordered the administration to unfreeze funds intended for a Maine child nutrition program.

Questions over the rights of transgender people have become a major political issue in the past five years.

Twenty-six states have laws or policies barring transgender girls from girls school sports. GOP-controlled states have also been banning gender-affirming health care for transgender minors and restricting bathroom use in schools and sometimes other public buildings.

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

This house in Cumberland, Maine, shows a home with an LGBTQ pride flag and an upside down American flag, Wednesday, Aprill 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)

This Wednesday, April 16, 2025 photo shows Greely High School in Cumberland, Maine. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle)

Attorney General Pam Bondi accompanied by from left Riley Gaines Rep. Laurel Libby R-Maine, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon speaks during a news conference to announce that the administration it is suing Maine’s education department for not complying with the government's push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports, at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks with reporters at the White House, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Education Secretary Linda McMahon accompanied by Attorney General Pam Bondi, right, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

FILE - Democratic Gov. Janet Mills delivers her State of the State address, Jan. 30, 2024, at the State House in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge agreed to temporarily block the Trump administration from taking any more steps to dismantle an agency that funds and promotes libraries across the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled Thursday that plaintiffs who sued to preserve the Institute of Museum and Library Services are likely to show that the Republican administration doesn't have the legal authority to unilaterally shutter the agency, which Congress created.

The American Library Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees filed a lawsuit last month to stop the administration from gutting the institute after President Donald Trump signed a March 14 executive order that refers to it and several other federal agencies as “unnecessary.”

Keith Sonderling, the agency's newly appointed acting director, subsequently placed many agency staff members on administrative leave, sent termination notices to most of them, began canceling grants and contracts and fired all members of the National Museum and Library Services Board.

“These harms are neither speculative nor remediable,” Leon wrote.

The judge said he was issuing a “narrow” temporary restraining order that preserves the status quo at the agency without granting all of the relief that plaintiffs' attorneys were seeking. It bars the administration from taking any more steps to dissolve the agency or its operations, fire any staffers or cancel contracts while the lawsuit is pending.

The institute has roughly 75 employees and issued more than $266 million in grants last year.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys warn that closing the agency will force libraries to end grant-funded programs, cut staff and possibly even close.

“And even if Defendants possessed constitutional or statutory authority to eviscerate IMLS, they have provided no reasoned explanation for doing so, ignored strong reliance interests, and failed to consider more reasonable alternatives,” they wrote.

Government lawyers said Trump's executive order requires the institute to reduce its work to only that which is required by statute. They also argued that the district court doesn't have jurisdiction over plaintiffs' claims.

“Plaintiffs’ requested injunctive relief would effectively disable several federal agencies, as well as the President himself, from implementing the President’s priorities consistent with their legal authorities,” they wrote.

Cindy Hohl, president of the American Library Association, said the cut in funding is already impacting libraries across the country, including in rural areas where libraries are setting up their summer reading programs.

“Many libraries that already have contracts with performers and educators, they’re having to find other ways to be able to pay for their assistance with programs,” she said. Hohl added that the grants are a minute percentage of the overall federal budget but provide sizable funding for some facilities that will have to close.

President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)