Minnesota became the first state on Tuesday to sue the Justice Department over its threats to cut federal funding to states that allow transgender girls and women to participate on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.
The lawsuit from Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general, said that two of President Trump’s executive orders and enforcement letters from the Justice Department violated state sovereignty rights under the 10th Amendment, usurped the power of Congress and violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
Last week, the Trump administration sued Maine over policies that allow some transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports, asserting that the state was violating a federal law intended to prevent discrimination based on sex. At a news conference announcing the move, Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested that the Justice Department was considering similar actions against Minnesota and California.
The Trump administration has interpreted Title IX, a 1972 statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs that receive federal funding, to bar the participation of trans athletes on girls’ and women’s teams. One of Mr. Trump’s executive orders, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” directs the Department of Education to investigate schools that do not comply and to withdraw the schools’ federal funding.
Mr. Trump’s order states that allowing transgender girls and women to compete in categories designated for female athletes is unfair and “results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls.” Another order directs every agency to ensure that federal funds are not used to promote what the administration calls gender ideology, a term that states that gender identity is an ideological movement.
Mr. Ellison’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, says that the Trump administration lacks the authority to impose its interpretation of Title IX on states through an executive order. The government cannot “terminate or withhold federal grants from Minnesota schools because the president has different policy preferences about how transgender athletes are allowed to compete in Minnesota,’’ the complaint says.
Two transgender public high school students in New Hampshire have also challenged Mr. Trump’s order on sports as part of their lawsuit over a state law barring trans girls from playing girls’ sports at school.
About 25 Republican-led states have enacted laws that ban trans girls and women from participating on women’s teams, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association has banned transgender athletes from competing at its member institutions. In recent months, some Democrats have urged their party to no longer defend the participation of trans athletes in sports, aligning with Republicans in what has served as a potent wedge issue for Democrats.
But federal courts have differed on how to apply Title IX to school policies involving sports participation and the use of bathrooms by trans students. Earlier this year, Democrats in the Senate blocked a bill that would have codified the interpretation of Title IX in Mr. Trump’s sports order. And in states where Democrats control the legislatures, transgender student athletes in elementary and secondary schools typically are able to compete on teams that align with their gender identities.
Maine sued the Agriculture Department earlier this month after it froze funding that the state said could threaten its school meals programs. A federal judge temporarily blocked the move from going into effect.
In February, according to the court filing, Mr. Ellison issued an opinion clarifying that Minnesota law still requires schools to allow children to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity, under a state anti-discrimination law. In an April 8 letter to Mr. Ellison, Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote that the opinion “seemingly requires Minnesota schools to disregard the federal government’s interpretation of Title IX.”
If so, the letter read, “you would be setting up an irreconcilable conflict between Minnesota and federal law and forcing Minnesota schools to lose their federal funds.”
Minnesota’s lawsuit, Mr. Ellison said, amounted to the state’s response.
“They gave us a certain amount of time that they said they would sue us in, and we said we’d get back to them with our answer within a certain amount of time,’’ he said on Tuesday. “And we have.’’
Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.
Amy Harmon covers how shifting conceptions of gender affect everyday life in the United States.
The post Minnesota Sues Trump Administration Over Limits on Transgender Athletes appeared first on New York Times.
