Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) vowed to see President Donald Trump in court docket as they engaged in a heated change Friday over Trump’s menace 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 instantly whereas addressing some states’ objections to his latest government order that bars trans athletes from ladies’s sports activities.
“Are you not gonna comply with it?” Trump requested Mills, as seen in video footage shared on social media.
I’m complying with state and federal regulation,” Mills responded.
“We are the federal law,” he retorted. “Well, you better do it. You better do it because you’re not gonna get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
Trump then repeated MAGA speaking factors on “men playing in women’s sports.”
“See you in court,” Mills ultimately answered.
“Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor ’cause I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics,” he stated.
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 stated that it is going to ignore Trump’s government order and as an alternative obey a state regulation that prohibits discrimination based mostly on race, shade, intercourse, sexual orientation, age, bodily or psychological incapacity, genetic pre-disposition, faith, ancestry or nationwide origin.
Trump has stated that every one states that ignore his order might be ineligible for federal funding for violating Title IX, which bans intercourse discrimination.
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Maine has additionally joined a number of different states in rejecting Trump’s efforts to limit gender-affirming care.
Shortly after Friday’s change, the U.S. Division of Training’s Workplace for Civil Rights (OCR) introduced that it launched a Title IX violation investigation into Maine’s Division of Training and one in every of its college districts. In an announcement, the DOE argued that state legal guidelines don’t override federal antidiscrimination legal guidelines.
“If Maine wants to continue to receive federal funds from the Education Department, it has to follow Title IX,” Craig Trainor, performing assistant secretary for civil rights, stated in an announcement. “If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample the rights of its young female athletes, that, too, is its choice. OCR will do everything in its power to ensure taxpayers are not funding blatant civil rights violators.”
