Katherine Hamilton 14 Apr 2025
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey took a jab at the Trump administration after a judge on Friday ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to unfreeze funding to the state amid an ongoing battle over transgender athletes.
District Court Judge John Woodcock issued a temporary restraining order in the case brought by Maine against the USDA, although he noted his order does not weigh in on the larger dispute surrounding Maine allowing trans-identifying males on female sports teams and in female spaces.
“This temporary restraining order confirms the Trump Administration did not follow the rule of law when it cut program funds that go to feed school children and vulnerable adults,” Frey claimed in a statement.
“This order preserves Maine’s access to certain congressionally appropriated funds by prohibiting an unlawful freeze by the administration. No one in our constitutional republic is above the law and we will continue to fight to hold this administration to account,” he added.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced on April 2 that the agency had begun freezing federal funds to Maine because of Democrat Gov. Janet Mills’ refusal to bar transgender-identifying boys from competing in girls’ sports. The USDA said it paused distribution of funds after sending multiple requests to Mills urging her to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order and Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities receiving federal funding.
“You cannot openly violate federal law against discrimination in education and expect federal funding to continue unabated,” Rollins said in the letter. “Your defiance of federal law has cost your state, which is bound by Title IX in educational programming. Today, I am freezing Maine’s federal funds for certain administrative and technological functions in schools.”
Frey subsequently filed a complaint in federal court describing the funding pause as “illegally withholding grant funds that go to keeping children fed.”
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/04/14/maine-ag-slams-trump-admin-after-judge-orders-usda-to-unfreeze-funding-to-state/
