PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: A U.S. Department of Education investigation into allegations that Maine violated Title IX by allowing men to compete in women’s sports has been referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for enforcement action.
👥 Who’s Involved: The U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice, Governor Janet Mills (D-ME), and Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor.
📍 Where & When: The actions are taking place in Maine, with the investigation prompted by an incident in February where a biological male won a Maine women’s high school pole vaulting championship.
💬 Key Quote: “The Department has given Maine every opportunity to come into compliance with Title IX, but the state’s leaders have stubbornly refused to do so,” states Department of Education Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor.
⚠️ Impact: Maine faces loss of federal education funding, with state officials saying they will defend Maine’s transgender athlete policy in federal court.
IN FULL:
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is taking over a Title IX violation case in Maine, signaling it will launch legal action against the state following an investigation by the Department of Education. In February, a biologically male high school athlete—who goes by Katie Spencer—won the state’s Class B girls’ pole vaulting championship, prompting a federal investigation into whether the state violated an Executive Order signed by President Donald J. Trump barring males from participating in women’s sports.
“The Department has given Maine every opportunity to come into compliance with Title IX, but the state’s leaders have stubbornly refused to do so, choosing instead to prioritize an extremist ideological agenda over their students’ safety, privacy, and dignity,” the Department of Education’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement. He added: “The Maine Department of Education will now have to defend its discriminatory practices before a Department administrative law judge and in a federal court against the Justice Department. Governor Mills would have done well to adhere to the wisdom embedded in the old idiom—be careful what you wish for. Now she will see the Trump Administration in court.”
🔥 President Trump calls Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) out to her face over her refusal to comply with the executive order keeping men out of women’s sports:
“You better do it — because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.” pic.twitter.com/uMUZsy1j6t
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 21, 2025
Maine’s assistant attorney general, Sarah Foster, contends that her state’s policy allowing biologically male transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports is Title IX compliant. “Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams,” Foster argued in a letter to the DOJ. She added: “Your letters to date do not cite a single case that so holds. To the contrary, various federal courts have held that Title IX and/or the Equal Protection Clause require schools to allow such participation.”
In late February, Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) clashed with Trump during a lunch event at the White House when the President pressed Mills on whether her state would comply with his women’s sports directive. When the Maine Democrat insisted that her state was already in compliance, President Trump shot back: “Well, we are the federal law… You’d better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
Following the White House exchange, the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation to determine whether Maine had violated Title IX regulations. Subsequently, the Trump administration has moved to cut federal funding for the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) over the state’s refusal to comply with Trump’s women’s sports order.
The National Pulse reported in March that the University of Maine System (UMS) reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to adhere to Trump’s Executive Order. UMS, comprising eight public universities in Maine, faced a suspension of federal funding from the USDA.