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By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -The state of Maine on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture's decision to freeze federal funding for education programs in the state over its refusal to ban transgender women from sports.
The lawsuit came days after USDA announced the freeze, one of several actions President Donald Trump's administration had taken against the state since Democratic Maine Governor Janet Mills clashed with the Republican over the issue of transgender athletes during a White House event in February.
During the February 21 meeting with governors, Trump threatened to withhold funds from Maine if it did not comply with an executive order he signed banning transgender athletes from playing girls' and womens' sports.
Mills responded: "We're going to follow the law, sir. We'll see you in court."
USDA did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The U.S. Department of Education under Trump last month said education officials in the state were violating the Title IX federal anti-discrimination law by allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls' sports and use girls' facilities.
Maine officials have declined to comply with Trump's demands. Maine legislators in 2021 updated a state law to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.
While the administration had taken other actions against the state, no funding had been cut off until Wednesday, when U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins sent Mills a letter saying she was freezing some USDA federal funds.
That money is used by the state to administer federal programs designed to fight hunger by reimbursing schools, childcare centers and after-school programs for providing free or reduced-price meals to children.
Rollins in her letter said the freeze was "only the beginning, though you are free to end it at any time by protecting women and girls in compliance with federal law."
In a complaint filed in federal court in Bangor, Maine, the state's Democratic attorney general, Aaron Frey, argued the abrupt funding freeze was "blatantly unlawful" and done without following statutory and regulatory requirements.
"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," Frey said in a statement.
Frey's office is seeking a temporary restraining order barring the USDA from withholding funds while the lawsuit is pending.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alistair Bell, Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
