A high-stakes legal showdown is erupting between the Trump Administration and the state of Maine after the White House announced on Wednesday it plans to file a federal civil lawsuit accusing Maine’s Department of Education of defying its order to ban transgender individuals from girls’ sports.

The dispute centers on President Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” signed in February. The order fulfills a campaign promise to define sex as a person’s assigned gender at birth and preserve fairness in sports. The sweeping order allows federal agencies to pull vital funding from non-compliant states. States use federal funding for a wide variety of purposes, including healthcare, education, social services, infrastructure needs, disaster relief, and Medicaid.

Critics of the order contend it targets the most vulnerable students and reshapes federal civil rights law.

Governor Mills of Maine made headlines during a February meeting of governors at the White House, where she expressed her intentions to defy that order. During an intense exchange, Mr. Trump threatened to pull federal funding if the state didn’t comply. “We’ll see you in court,” Ms. Mills said on the steps of the White House.

Ms. Mills made good on that promise. Maine sued the administration earlier this month after U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the Department of Agriculture was pausing funds that support the state’s education programs due to Maine’s failure to comply with Title IX law by allowing transgender individuals to participate on girls’ teams.

“In order to continue to receive taxpayer dollars from USDA, the state of Maine must demonstrate compliance with Title IX, which protects female student athletes from having to compete with or against or have to appear unclothed before males,” Ms. Rollins wrote in a letter to Ms. Mills.

On Friday, a federal judge ordered the administration to unfreeze the funds for a state nutrition program that feeds low-income children. The judge’s order prompted the administration to file its lawsuit.

Attorney General Bondi said at a news conference  that Maine was “discriminating against women by failing to protect women in women’s sports.”  She called it a “violation of Title IX,” adding, “This is about sports. This is also about these young women’s personal safety.”

Ms. Bondi was joined at the new conference by former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who publicly opposes allowing transgender individuals to participate on girls’ teams. Ms. Gaines, who tied for fifth place with a transgender athlete in the 2022 NCAA Championships, and other female athletes supporting a ban were at the White House when Mr. Trump signed the order to keep transgender individuals out of girls’ sports.

Ultimately, the administration’s lawsuit isn’t about one state’s non-compliance.  The outcome will likely shape the future of transgender rights, not just in sports, but also the meaning of sex and gender under U.S. law.

According to the Associated Press, 26 states have enacted laws or policies barring transgender athletes from girls’ school sports. Several GOP-controlled states have also banned gender-affirming health care and bathroom access for transgender minors.

Maine has remained defiant of the ban, insisting Title IX does not prohibit transgender participation in sports. The Assistant Attorney General of Maine, Sarah Foster, said in a statement that “nothing in the laws prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate.”

The legal war marks a dramatic reversal from the policies of the Obama and Biden administrations, which sought to expand protections for transgender Americans. During their administrations, the Justice Department sued states for discriminating against transgender individuals. Now the Trump Administration is suing states for protecting them.

In her letter to Ms. Mills dated April 2, Ms. Rollins said the USDA would launch a full review of grants awarded by the Biden Administration to the Maine Department of Education.  “Many of these grants appear to be wasteful, redundant, or otherwise against the priorities of the Trump Administration,” Ms. Rollins wrote.

Meanwhile, Britain’s highest court ruled on Wednesday that the word “woman” refers to a “biological woman and biological sex,” which could end the application of laws regarding changing rooms and counseling services.