The U.S. Department of Agriculture agreed to stop freezing funds to Maine in a court order issued Friday, marking one of the state's first legal victories in its months-long Title IX feud with the Trump administration over their conflicting policies for transgender student-athletes.
"The State of Maine went to court and fought this unlawful attempt to freeze critical funding for our school lunch program — and we won," said Maine Gov. Janet Mills in a Friday statement. Mills said the reinstated funds would preserve school meals for 172,000 Maine students.
The settlement agreement comes after a temporary restraining order issued in April — under a lawsuit filed by Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey the same month — that had already prohibited USDA from freezing funding until May 9.
USDA restricted federal funds to the state last month, after a public February spat between Mills and President Donald Trump over Maine's policies allowing transgender students on sports teams. The fight led to immediate action by three agencies: USDA, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Both the Education Department and HHS separately found the Maine Department of Education to be in violation of Title IX — a verdict reached after short investigations and portended by the Trump administration upon their launch. Mills had called the outcomes "all but predetermined," and followed through on her promise to "see [Trump] in court" by challenging USDA's decision to freeze funding.
That lawsuit, which resulted in Maine's victory last week, alleged that USDA's decision to cut off funding over Title IX allegations was "arbitrary, capricious, not in accordance with law," and was taken “without observance of procedure required by law.” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins "provided no basis for her determination that the State of Maine is in violation of Title IX," the state argued.
"Without federal funds, state employees who administer school food programs will be laid off, food providers will not be able to purchase food or pay staff to prepare and serve food, and schools will not be reimbursed for meals they provide," the lawsuit said. "In short, children, as well as some vulnerable adults, will go hungry."
USDA, in announcing the funding freeze, said its move would not impact children's meals.
"This pause does not impact federal feeding programs or direct assistance to citizens; if a child was fed today, they will be fed tomorrow," the agency said at the time.
However, the following day, Maine's Child Nutrition Program was "unable to access several sources of federal funding, all of which are necessary to feed children and vulnerable adults," according to an April 7 statement from the state attorney general's office.
The Trump administration still has two separate investigations into Maine that have been referred by the departments of Education and HHS to the U.S. Department of Justice for enforcement, after those two agencies said they were at an "impasse" with Maine. The Education Department and HHS investigations resulted in draft resolution agreements the administration said Maine must sign if it wished to avoid cuts in federal funding.
When Maine refused to sign the Education Department's draft agreement, the agency referred the case to the DOJ, which then sued the state to claw back over $864 million in federal dollars.
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, who filed the DOJ lawsuit, said in an April press conference that “many, many” other states, including California and Minnesota, are at risk of losing federal funding over alleged civil rights violations.
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