Maine sues Trump admin over funding freeze for refusal to keep trans athletes out of women's sports

Maine officials filed a suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) connected Monday pursuing the agency’s determination to frost backing to the authorities for its refusal to reverse its transgender jock information argumentation successful schools.

The authorities accused the USDA of "withholding backing utilized to provender children successful schools, childcare centers, and after-school programming arsenic good arsenic disabled adults successful congregate settings."

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The State House is seen successful Augusta, Maine, connected June 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

"Under the banner of keeping children safe, the Trump Administration is illegally withholding assistance funds that spell to keeping children fed," Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said successful a quality release. "This is conscionable different illustration wherever nary instrumentality oregon effect appears to restrain the medication arsenic it seeks capitulation to its lawlessness. 

"The President and his furniture secretaries bash not marque the instrumentality and they are not supra the law, and this enactment is indispensable to punctual the President that Maine volition not beryllium bullied into violating the law."

Frey added that the backing frost was "unlawful" and sought a impermanent restraining bid against the section from withholding the funds.

Fox News Digital reached retired to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for comment.

The USDA announced the backing frost and a reappraisal of national backing to Maine aft the authorities refused to supply adjacent opportunities to women and girls successful acquisition programs.

The authorities has refused to comply with President Donald Trump's February enforcement bid to prohibition trans athletes from girls' and women's sports, prompting immense national pressure. Trump initially vowed to chopped national backing to the authorities if it refused to comply with the bid during a Feb. 20 speech.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills with a idiosyncratic holding a transgender flag. (AP/IMAGN)

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USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said the authorities indispensable hold to support pistillate athletes from trans inclusion earlier backing is restored. 

"In bid to proceed to person payer dollars from USDA, the authorities of Maine indispensable show compliance with Title IX which protects pistillate pupil athletes from having to vie with oregon against oregon having to look unclothed earlier males," Rollins wrote successful a missive to the state. 

"In addition, USDA has launched a afloat reappraisal of grants awarded by the Biden Administration to the Maine Department of Education. Many of these grants look to beryllium wasteful, redundant, oregon different against the priorities of the Trump Administration. USDA volition not basal for the Biden Administration’s bloated bureaucracy and volition alternatively absorption connected a Department that is farmer-first and without a leftist societal agenda."

Frey alleged that the "Child Nutrition Program of the Maine Department of Education was incapable to entree respective sources of national funding, each of which are indispensable to provender children and susceptible adults" aft Rollins had signaled the backing frost wouldn’t impact programs that support children fed.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins speaks to members of the property extracurricular of the White House connected Feb. 14, 2025. (Getty Images)

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The Department of Education besides referred Maine's "noncompliance with Title IX" to the Justice Department. The bureau gave the authorities until April 11 to comply.

Fox News' Jennifer Johnson and Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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