Attorney General Pam Bondi escalated the Trump administration’s dispute with Maine on Wednesday, announcing a lawsuit over the state’s decision to continue allowing boys to compete in girls sports.
Bondi said during a press conference flanked by young female athletes, including activist Riley Gaines, that the legal action was a result of the state defying President Donald Trump’s executive order that interpreted Title IX to prevent transgender athletes from competing in sports exclusive to their opposite sex. The Biden administration had reinterpreted it to include transgender identity in Title IX’s protections.
“They must not be reading the same Title IX we’re reading,” Bondi said.
The DOJ alleged that the Maine Department of Education is “openly and defiantly flouting federal anti-discrimination law,” according to a draft of the complaint.
“By prioritizing gender identity over biological reality, Maine’s policies deprive girl athletes of fair competition, deny them equal athletic opportunities, and expose them to heightened risks of physical injury and physiological harm,” the complaint read.
The lawsuit is the latest development in a conflict that began in February with a heated exchange between Trump and Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) at a luncheon. Trump singled out the governor and asked if she would comply with his policy on transgender athletes. Mills replied she would comply with “state and federal law.”
“Well, we are the federal law. You better do it. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t,” Trump said.
“We’ll see you in court,” Mills shot back.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVES TO PULL MAINE K-12 FUNDING
“Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics,” Trump said.
Asked by a reporter about Mills’s recent remarks that male athletes competing in women’s sports is rare, Bondi replied, “If one young woman is in jeopardy, one, that’s enough for us to be standing up here.”
The lawsuit comes after the Department of Education said days ago that it referred an investigation into Maine to the DOJ. The Department of Education also said it began attempting to strip the state’s federal K-12 formula and grant funding.
Bondi indicated that she targeted Maine first after a male pole vaulter who identifies as transgender won a girls state competition in February 2025 and after Mills openly challenged Trump at the luncheon.
The attorney general said that after Maine, California and Minnesota were the “top two that should be on notice” and that she is “fully prepared to sue them and others.”
