Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) vowed to see President Donald Trump in court docket as they engaged in a heated trade Friday over Trump’s risk to withhold federal funds from states that don’t obey his transgender athlete ban.
Talking earlier than Democratic and Republican governors at an occasion within the White Home, Trump known as out Mills immediately whereas addressing some states’ objections to his latest govt order that bars trans athletes from girls’s sports activities.
“Are you not gonna adjust to it?” Trump requested Mills, as seen in video footage shared on social media.
I’m complying with state and federal legislation,” Mills responded.
“We’re the federal legislation,” he retorted. “Nicely, you higher do it. You higher do it since you’re not gonna get any federal funding in any respect should you don’t.”
Trump then repeated MAGA speaking factors on “males taking part in in girls’s sports activities.”
“See you in court docket,” Mills finally answered.
“Good, I’ll see you in court docket. I stay up for that. That must be an actual straightforward one. And revel in your life after governor ’trigger I don’t assume you’ll be in elected politics,” he mentioned.
Mills is term-limited and can’t search reelection to a 3rd consecutive time period when her present time period ends.
The Maine Principals’ Affiliation, which governs highschool sports activities within the state, has mentioned that it will ignore Trump’s govt order and as a substitute obey a state law that prohibits discrimination primarily based on race, colour, intercourse, sexual orientation, age, bodily or psychological incapacity, genetic pre-disposition, faith, ancestry or nationwide origin.
Trump has mentioned that each one states that ignore his order will likely be ineligible for federal funding for violating Title IX, which bans intercourse discrimination.
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Maine has additionally joined several other states in rejecting Trump’s efforts to limit gender-affirming care.
Shortly after Friday’s trade, the U.S. Division of Schooling’s Workplace for Civil Rights (OCR) introduced that it launched a Title IX violation investigation into Maine’s Division of Schooling and one among its college districts. In an announcement, the DOE argued that state legal guidelines don’t override federal antidiscrimination legal guidelines.
“If Maine desires to proceed to obtain federal funds from the Schooling Division, it has to comply with Title IX,” Craig Trainor, performing assistant secretary for civil rights, mentioned in an announcement. “If it desires to forgo federal funds and proceed to trample the rights of its younger feminine athletes, that, too, is its selection. OCR will do every part in its energy to make sure taxpayers are usually not funding blatant civil rights violators.”
