Just over three months into the second Trump administration, American institutions are tripping over themselves to show how willing they are to appease the authoritarian in the White House. Within days of Trump’s inauguration, major corporations like Target announced that they would end their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Corporate law firms have now pledged $940 million in pro bono support to the administration while backing away from their (already questionable) commitments to building diverse workplaces. And of course, Democrats in Congress have been largely MIA, doing everything from voting to advance Trump’s budget to voting to confirm his Cabinet nominees.
In the midst of this disintegration of civil society, one bright spot has been the Democratic-led states that have refused to abandon their commitment to progress and the rule of law out of fear of Donald Trump. Democratic attorneys general have sued the administration to stop the implementation of Trump’s tariffs. Governors are signing executive orders to protect reproductive freedom. Attorneys general are issuing guidance on how to protect residents from ICE. And across the country, states are refusing back down from their commitment to the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.
Unfortunately, this administration is committed to eliminating any possible source of resistance to its agenda, and blue states are included on that list. On April 16, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Department of Justice was suing the state of Maine because of its refusal to ban trans girls from playing youth sports. This followed the administration’s announcement that all of the Department of Agriculture’s federal funding for education programs in Maine would be frozen—an action which has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge—until the state eliminates the participation of trans girls from girls’ sports teams.
The basis of the administration’s actions at both DOJ and the Department of Agriculture is a tortured reading of Title IX, a federal statute that prohibits sex discrimination in any education-related programming that receives federal funding. According to the White House, allowing trans girls to join teams on the basis of their gender identity amounts to discrimination against cis girls. For context, the Maine Principals’ Association has said that there are two trans girls playing high school sports in the state this year.
Trump’s bigotry in the form of executive order is directly at odds with Maine civil rights law. Maine’s Human Rights Act, enacted by the state’s legislature in 1971, prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and therefore protects the right of those two girls to play on the girls’ teams. Because of this basic protection for the human rights of the people of Maine, the administration is threatening to pull hundreds of millions of dollars that goes to support over 170,000 students in Maine.
This type of attack is not going to end with Maine. On April 22, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a federal lawsuit arguing that Trump’s executive orders regarding trans student athletes are unconstitutional, as is the White House’s threat of cutting funding to Minnesota if the state continues to allow students to play sports on the basis of their gender identity. And like Maine and Minnesota, California is refusing to ban trans girls from joining sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Bondi has indicated that the administration could similarly target California, the nation’s most populous state, if it continues to defend trans kids.
Of course, the administration is wrong on the law. They’re wrong on their interpretation of Title IX; they’re wrong when it comes to issues of federalism and federal separation of powers; and they’re wrong when it comes to basic matters of due process. These legal threats are calculated to chill states’ efforts to enforce their laws to protect trans kids, immigrants, women, and people of color.
Across the country, states have responded to the Trump administration’s onslaught by stepping up to defend abortion access, workers’ right to unionize, voting rights, and more. Their continued ability to do this is critical: not only does it safeguard the rights of millions of people, but it allows states to operate as the laboratories of democracy as the Constitution intends them to be. A system of divided government ensures that people can see an alternative vision for the future than the one the White House is presenting. If federal courts do not protect it in cases like Maine’s and Minnesota’s, states might become yet another potential crumbling bulwark in the face of authoritarianism.
