Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills have sparred over the law.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday warned Minnesota, California, and Maine that they need to comply with federal law to keep “men out of women’s sports,” according to a statement issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ said Bondi sent letters to the officials of those three states and said that they may be out of compliance with an order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this month that makes it illegal for transgender individuals to compete in women’s and girls’ sports.
“This Department of Justice will defend women and does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law,” Bondi said in the statement. “We will leverage every legal option necessary to ensure state compliance with federal law and President Trump’s executive order protecting women’s sports.”
Bondi sent letters to California Interscholastic Federation Executive Director Ron Nocetti, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Erich Martens, executive director of the Minnesota State High School League. She also sent a letter to Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
Trump and Mills, a Democrat, were involved in a verbal altercation on Feb. 20 while the president was meeting with governors. The president told Mills that she needed to comply with the executive order or he would withhold education funding to her state.
“We are the federal law,” Trump told her at one point. “You‘d better do it. You’d better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
In a statement on Feb. 21, Mills said that she and the state of Maine won’t “be intimidated” by Trump’s warning that federal education funding could be withheld.
“If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” she said.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a letter last week that Trump’s order “would violate the Minnesota Human Rights Act,” a state law that allows transgender individuals to compete in women’s sports.
“The Executive Order does not have the force of law and therefore does not preempt any aspect of Minnesota law. Complying with the Executive Order and prohibiting students from participation in extracurricular activities consistent with their gender identity would violate” state law, the letter said.
Under the executive order, the Trump administration can deny federal funding to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports. Schools that do not comply with the order would be deemed to be violating Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools and educational programs that get federal funds.
“It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” his order said. “It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
