Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing Maine’s Department of Education over its failure to comply with President Donald Trump’s order protecting women’s sports.
“The state of Maine is discriminating against women by failing to protect women in women’s sports, pretty basic stuff. This is a violation of Title IX,” Bondi said during a press conference. “The Department of Justice will not sit by when women are discriminated against in sports. This is about sports. This is also about these young women’s personal safety.”
“We have exhausted every other remedy. We tried to get Maine to comply. We don’t like standing up here and filing lawsuits. We want to get states to comply with us. That’s what this is about,” she added. “We have repeatedly notified Maine of its infractions and urged them to remedy the situation. We’ve stripped grants from Maine through other departments, and we are going to continue to fight for women.”
The DOJ said in the lawsuit that the state’s education department is “openly and defiantly flouting anti-discrimination law by enforcing policies that require girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions designated exclusively for girls,” as per CBS News.
“The United States accordingly files this action to stop Maine’s unapologetic sex-discrimination against female student athletes,” the lawsuit reads.
Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) called the lawsuit an “unprecedented campaign to pressure the State of Maine to ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law.”
“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,” she said, adding, “Let today serve as warning to all states: Maine might be among the first to draw the ire of the Federal government in this way, but we will not be the last.”
The U.S. Department of Education announced last week that it would begin the process of terminating grants to the state due to its noncompliance with Title IX protections surrounding female athletes.
