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In an unprecedented series of events, the U.S. Department of Justice last week announced that it is filing a civil lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education and could seek to pursue federal funding penalties for past and present Title IX violations over the state's policy on transgender athletes.
The announcement was a culmination of weeks of letters and threats from the administration — across multiple agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education — warning the state to stop its policy allowing transgender students to play on women’s and girls’ sports teams.
The aggressive enforcement from the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, which passed the case on to the Justice Department for enforcement earlier this month, could be a blueprint for other investigations that are currently pending in states like California and Minnesota — and those that have yet to be announced.
Here is a timeline of events leading up to last week's announcement that the Department of Justice is taking over the enforcement of Title IX in Maine:
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Feb. 21, 2025President Donald Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills have a public spat during a governors' meeting over the state's athletic policy allowing transgender students to play on women and girls’ sports teams. The White House quarrel ends with Mills telling Trump she will "see you in court," kicking off weeks of investigations from multiple federal agencies.
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Feb. 21, 2025The same day Trump and Mills spar, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Education Department both announce self-initiated investigations into the Maine Department of Education alleging violations of Title IX. The Education Department's acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Craig Trainor, warns the state from the get-go that, "If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample the rights of its young female athletes, that, too, is its choice."
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Feb. 25, 2025HHS finds the Maine Department of Education in violation of Title IX, just four days after its investigation began, which prompts a Feb. 26 update from the Education Department on its own probe of the state and a comment from Trainor calling it "shameful that Governor Mills refuses to stand with women and girls."
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March 5, 2025HHS expands its Title IX investigation to include the Maine Principals' Association and Greely High School.
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March 17, 2025HHS finds all three entities — MPA, Greely High School and the Maine Department of Education — in violation of Title IX and sends an updated draft resolution agreement for the entities to sign. They are given 10 days to voluntarily sign the agreement or "risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for appropriate action."
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March 19, 2025Following in the footsteps of HHS, the Education Department finds the Maine Department of Education in violation of Title IX and sends a draft resolution agreement that the state must sign within 10 days or risk federal funding. The agreement requires the state education department to define “females” and “males” in its policies, publicize the definitions on its website, and require the same from districts, among other things.
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March 28, 2025Less than 10 days after the U.S. Department of Education finds Maine in violation of Title IX, it launches a second self-initiated investigation — this time over alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act. The federal agency alleges multiple districts' policies allow gender plans, which are meant to support students' transgender identities, that are not available to parents.
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March 31, 2025After the 10-day deadline passes for the Maine Education Department to agree to the draft resolution, a final warning is issued that it is at "an impasse" with the U.S. Department of Education, meaning that Maine has another 10 days before its case is sent to the Justice Department. Maine is warned once again that funds are on the line and that the "Trump-McMahon Education Department is moving quickly to ensure that federal funds no longer support patently illegal practices that harm women and girls.”
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April 4, 2025After weeks of collaboration and speculation from education civil rights lawyers that the Education Department may refer its civil rights cases to the Justice Department for enforcement, the administration announces a new Title IX investigative team. It taps the Justice Department to help investigate and ultimately enforce the separation of transgender students from girls’ and women’s athletics teams and spaces in schools and colleges, a major change in enforcement strategy. The administration says there is "a new sheriff in town." "OCR under this Administration has moved faster than it ever has," U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon says.
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April 11, 2025Following the 10-day deadline in the letter of impasse issued to Maine, the U.S. Education Department transfers the civil rights case to the Justice Department, coming one step closer to fulfilling its promise to cut off the state's federal education funds if it does not enforce Title IX so as to keep transgender students from girls’ locker rooms, restrooms and athletic teams. The move comes less than two months after the spat between Trump and Mills.
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April 16, 2025Five days after the Education Department announced it was referring the case to the Justice Department, the latter agency announces that it is suing the Maine Department of Education, seeking to stop its transgender athletic policy. It also says it is looking into retroactively rescinding funding from the state for past Title IX violations. Mills says multiple investigations from the government have "targeted hungry school kids, hardworking fishermen, senior citizens, new parents, and countless Maine people" and subjected the state to "politically motivated investigations that opened and closed without discussion, leaving little doubt that their outcomes were predetermined." U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi warns “many, many” other states — including Minnesota and California, which already have active investigations pending — are next in line. Schools that willingly comply with the administration will be spared, Bondi says.
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