Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) filed a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), challenging the agency’s recent decision to withhold federal funding from the state over its refusal to follow the Trump administration’s directive to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports in schools.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, the lawsuit argues that the USDA’s funding freeze is “blatantly unlawful” and directly undermines the state’s ability to provide meals to students who rely on school nutrition programs.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, named as a defendant, said last week that the funding pause would only affect “certain administrative and technological functions in schools” and would not touch actual feeding programs.
In a letter sent to Maine Governor Janet Mills (D), with whom former President Trump has publicly clashed, Rollins warned that this freeze “is only the beginning.”
The USDA has not responded to requests for comment.
However, the lawsuit contends that Rollins’ statement is misleading and that the freeze has already disrupted programs that feed children.
According to the complaint, the day after Rollins’ letter was sent, Maine’s Child Nutrition Program—part of the state’s Department of Education—lost access to key federal funds.
These included administrative funds used to pay staff who manage programs like the Child and Adult Care Food Program, which provides meals for young children, at-risk youth, and adults in day care.
The loss of funding means “providers will have to cease operations and children (and vulnerable adults) will not be fed,” the lawsuit states.
The suit also claims that the USDA violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to give Maine formal notice of any noncompliance with Title IX before freezing funds.
The agency did not conduct an investigation, hold a hearing, make formal findings, or submit a report to Congress, as required by law.
Furthermore, the lawsuit argues that Rollins offered “no legal basis” for her interpretation of Title IX and that her interpretation is incorrect.
It points out that several federal courts have ruled that Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause protect the rights of transgender girls and women to participate in girls’ and women’s sports.
Last month, the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services concluded that Maine had violated Title IX, based on what Governor Mills has described as politically motivated investigations.
Following those findings, the Education Department issued a “final warning” to the Maine Department of Education and said it would refer the matter to the Justice Department if the state did not comply.
In a statement Monday, Frey said the administration is unjustly withholding money meant to feed Maine’s children “under the banner of keeping children safe.”
“This is just another example where no law or consequence appears to restrain the administration as it seeks capitulation to its lawlessness,” Frey said.
“The President and his cabinet secretaries do not make the law, and they are not above the law, and this action is necessary to remind the President that Maine will not be bullied into violating the law.”
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