The Department of Justice announced Wednesday it is suing the state of Maine for not complying with the administration’s move to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports.
“We are going to continue to fight for women,” Attorney General Pam Bondi announced at a news conference, according to The Associated Press.
President Trump signed an executive order in February that ensures that federal funding only goes to agencies that recognize “sex” as being defined by biology at birth. The order was titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
Since then, Mr. Trump has quarreled with Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, over threats to cut off federal funds if she did not comply with his order.
The federal government claims that Maine is violating federal discrimination laws by allowing transgender athletes to compete against girls.
Sarah Foster, the assistant attorney general in Maine, has argued federal law does not ban “schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams.”
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The Supreme Court has not squarely ruled on the issue of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, but in 2020, it allowed “sex” to extend to “sex stereotyping” in an employment discrimination legal battle, protecting LGBTQ employees.
The justices have an appeal pending before them dealing with whether states — specifically, West Virginia — can ban trans athletes from women’s sports.
It would take four justices to vote in favor of hearing that dispute for oral arguments to be granted.
