Bondi Threatens To Sue Maine, Minnesota And California Over Transgender Sports Policies

Attorney General Pam Bondi sent letters to officials in California, Maine and Minnesota on Tuesday warning they must bar transgender students from women’s 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 statement. “We will leverage every legal option necessary to ensure state compliance with federal law and President [Donald] Trump’s executive order.”

The letters follow Trump’s executive order signed earlier this month that barred transgender people from competing in women's sports. The Education Department has also advised education institutions that it will enforce Title IX, the federal education law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, on the basis of biological sex.

Since then, the Education Department has launched several investigations into transgender sports participation policies, including in California, Maine and Minnesota, which have laws or policies that recognize gender identity. The probe into Maine’s policy was initiated Friday after Trump’s public spat with Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, over the state’s policy at a meeting of governors at the White House.

“Where federal and state law conflict, states and state entities must follow federal law — not because we live in a dictatorship but because the Constitution requires states to follow the supreme law of the land,” Bondi wrote on Tuesday in a letter to Mills. The other two letters had similar language — and threatened to sue if they don’t comply.

The Education Department’s civil rights investigation is a key step in the process of pulling federal funding. HHS and USDA have also launched investigations into institutions in Maine. But the bar for being found guilty of a civil rights violation is high and cutting off federal funding to a school or education agency has not been done in decades.

Bondi also threatened to sue California Interscholastic Federation Executive Director Ron Nocetti, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Erich Martens, executive director of the Minnesota State High School League.

“If The Department of Education's investigation shows that the Federation is 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,” Bondi wrote to Nocetti.