The State of Maine sued the Agriculture Division on Monday, arguing that the company violated the regulation when it iced over investment to Maine ultimate week and that the freeze threatened faculty meal techniques.
The swimsuit, filed in Federal District Courtroom, is the most recent escalation of Maine’s standoff with the Trump management over transgender athletes, which started when President Trump chastised Gov. Janet Turbines, a Democrat, on the White Space in February. Mr. Trump has again and again threatened to punish the state if it does no longer comply along with his government order banning transgender ladies from ladies’s sports activities.
The government maintains {that a} Maine regulation prohibiting discrimination towards transgender other folks, and the state’s coverage of permitting transgender athletes to play on ladies’s groups, are violations of Identify IX, the civil rights regulation that prohibits intercourse discrimination in schooling.
“You can’t overtly violate federal regulation towards discrimination in schooling and be expecting federal investment to proceed unabated,” Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, wrote in a letter to Ms. Turbines ultimate week, in step with the lawsuit. “That is best the start, even though you might be loose to finish it at any time by way of protective girls and women in compliance with federal regulation.”
Aaron Frey, Maine’s legal professional normal, argues within the state’s lawsuit that Identify IX does no longer limit transgender athletes from collaborating in ladies’s sports activities. In reality, the criticism says, federal courts have held that civil rights regulations require colleges to permit such participation.
The state contends that the Agriculture Division didn’t practice required procedures ahead of freezing the investment. For the reason that investment covers salaries for employees who run the statewide faculty foods program, and the price of their telephones and computer systems, the lawsuit states, halting it threatens this system.
“Beneath the banner of holding kids protected, the Trump management is illegally withholding grant finances that cross to holding kids fed,” Mr. Frey stated in a commentary, including that “this motion is important to remind the president that Maine might not be bullied into violating the regulation.”
The state is looking for an emergency court docket order to revive the investment.