AG Bondi Steps Up Effort to Force States to Comply With Trump Trans Policy

WASHINGTON  — Attorney General Pam Bondi has sent letters to officials in three states warning them they must prevent transgender students from participating in women’s and girls’ sports or risk legal action.

“This Department of Justice will defend women and does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law,” Bondi said in a written statement on Tuesday after her office sent letters to officials in Maine, Minnesota and California.

“We will leverage every legal option necessary to ensure state compliance with federal law and President Trump’s executive order,” she said.

Hours after his swearing in on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order declaring that it is the official policy of the federal government that there are just two sexes, male and female.

He then signed a second executive order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” that bans transgender athletes of all ages from competing on girl’s and women’s sports teams. 

In it, the president stressed that he believes allowing trans athletes to compete in these events is a violation of Title IX, and the U.S. Constitution, and warned that his administration would soon be withholding federal funding from states and schools that don’t immediately come into compliance.

Title IX, enacted in 1972, prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities of recipients that receive federal funding. 

All three states have indicated that they won’t comply with the order, and the situation has been particularly vexing for the administration when it comes to the state of Maine, where Gov. Janet Mills, state Attorney General Aaron Frey, and the primary governing body for high school sports in the state have all said they won’t enforce the ban.

The conflict came to a head last week at the White House, when Mills challenged Trump in front of a bipartisan gathering of National Governors Association members.

“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,” Trump said as the argument escalated.

“We’ll see you in court,” Mills said.

On the heels of that confrontation, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights announced it was beginning a compliance review of the Maine Department of Education, including the University of Maine system.

The Department of Education is also conducting its own review.

In her letter to Mills, Bondi reiterated the administration’s position, arguing that the U.S. Constitution is the “supreme law” of the land, and therefore trumped — no pun intended —  state laws and regulations in regard to this issue.

“Where federal and state law conflict, state and state entities must follow federal law,” she wrote.

Her letters to officials in California and Minnesota contained similar language.

“Maine should be on notice,” she continued, referring specifically to the HHS and Education Department inquiries. 

“If these or other federal investigations show that the relevant Maine entities are indeed denying girls an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them to compete against boys, the Department of Justice stands ready to take all appropriate action to enforce federal law,” she said.

Frey, who is already suing the Trump administration along with 21 other attorneys general over its decision to unilaterally cut “indirect cost” reimbursements for medical research, said the cut in education funding Trump is planning is illegal and he vowed to fight it.

In Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office has released a formal legal opinion that Trump’s Executive Order banning transgender students from participating in extracurricular activities consistent with their gender identity does not supersede protections from discrimination in the Minnesota Constitution or Minnesota laws, and that complying with the executive order would be a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act. 

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue