Maine earned the distinction Wednesday of being the first state to be sued by the Justice Department over its transgender-athlete policy, but the Trump administration’s battle against biological males in female sports isn’t stopping there.
Attorney General Pam Bondi warned that California and Minnesota could be next unless they reverse their stances allowing male students who identify as female to participate in girls’ and women’s scholastic athletics.
“We’re looking at Minnesota, we’re looking at California,” Ms. Bondi said at Wednesday’s press conference. “We’re looking at many, many states, but they are the top two that should be on notice because we’ve been communicating with them.”
She said “just like Maine, we don’t want to be suing them. We want them to comply with the law.”
The lawsuit accuses the Maine Department of Education of violating Title IX, the 1972 civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding, by allowing male athletes to compete in female sports based on gender identity.
At least two male-born students have won titles in girls’ high school sports in the last two years, but Ms. Bondi said even one such athlete is a threat to fairness, privacy and safety in female athletics.
“I don’t care if it’s one, I don’t care if it’s two, I don’t care if it’s 100, it’s going to stop and it’s going to stop in every single state,” Ms. Bondi said.
Virtually every blue state allows transgender athletes in female sports, but Maine has been notable in its outright defiance of President Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
At a Feb. 21 meeting with governors at the White House, Mr. Trump warned Maine Gov. Janet Mills that her state would lose federal funding if she refused to comply with his order. She replied: “See you in court.”
The Democratic governor blasted the federal lawsuit, calling it “the latest, expected salvo in an unprecedented campaign to pressure the State of Maine to ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law.”
Maine officials have argued that the state’s Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on gender identity, supersedes the president’s executive order.
“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,” Ms. Mills said in a Wednesday statement.
Today the Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education for failing to protect women in women’s sports.
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) April 16, 2025
It’s simple: when women are discriminated against, this DOJ will take action. pic.twitter.com/NGwWMnvaI4
Ms. Mills has refused to bend despite the growing federal pressure, including a pause in federal funding to the state announced earlier this month by the Department of Agriculture. A federal judge temporarily blocked the department’s move last week.
The governor is also facing pushback within her own state. A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released last month showed two-thirds of residents oppose transgender athletes in female sports.
The Maine School Administrative District #70 school board sided Monday with Mr. Trump, approving a policy to “align with Federal Title IX by recognizing only two sexes — biological male and biological female — and that all private spaces be separated by biological sex.”
At the Wednesday press conference, Maine high school athletes Cassidy Carlisle and Zoe Hutchins talked about their frustration with having to compete against biological boys in their sports.
Miss Carlisle said she was 13 when she first discovered a biological boy in the girls’ locker room. Since then, she said she has lost to a transgender athlete in Nordic skiing “numerous times.”
“The fact that our governor can look the women of our state in the eyes and say, ’I’m not going to fight for you’ is heartbreaking and a betrayal,” she said. “Even though my own governor isn’t fight for me, I know there are people fighting for me.”
They include former All-American swimmer Riley Gaines, a prominent defender of single-sex female sports, who said that the “Democratic Party has really doubled down, tripled down, quadrupled down on their ridiculous stance.”
“They do this under the guise of progress, indicating that we are moving in the positive, forward direction,” Ms. Gaines said at the press conference. “No, what Gov. Mills is doing – and again, Democrat governors across the nation – is deeply regressive and misogynistic.”
The federal lawsuit seeks to block the state’s transgender-athlete policy as well as return titles and honors retroactively to female athletes “who rightfully won these sports,” Ms. Bondi said.
“And we are also considering whether to retroactively pull all the funding that they have received for not complying in the past,” she said.
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights determined last month that Maine violated Title IX with its transgender-athlete policy, referring the results of its investigation to the Justice Department.
“I hope Gov. Mills will recognize that her political feud with the president will deprive students in her state of more than the right to fair sporting events,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. “After all, compliance with federal civil rights law is a universal prerequisite for receiving federal funding.”
The feud over transgender athletes in Maine may well be headed to the Supreme Court, which has yet to address squarely the issue of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
In 2020, the court allowed “sex” to extend to “sex stereotyping” in an employment-discrimination ruling in favor of transgender employees.
The justices have an appeal pending before them dealing with whether states, specifically West Virginia, may ban male-born athletes from women’s sports. Four justices would need to vote in favor of accepting the case.
“We want to make sure that if you open women’s sports or intimate facilities to males, you expose yourself to federal civil rights investigations,” Ms. McMahon said. “Gov. Mills will definitely get her wish.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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