“[The DOJ] doesn’t tolerate state officers who ignore federal regulation,” stated Legal professional Common Pam Bondi.
On Tuesday, Legal professional Common Pam Bondi issued letters to officers in California, Maine and Minnesota, threatening authorized penalties if states don’t exclude transgender college students from girls’s sports activities.
“This Division of Justice will defend girls and doesn’t tolerate state officers who ignore federal regulation,” Bondi said in a statement. “We’ll leverage each authorized choice vital to make sure state compliance with federal regulation and President [Donald] Trump’s government order.”
The letters have been issued in response to certainly one of Trump’s anti-trans executive orders earlier this month, which prohibits transgender folks from taking part in girls’s sports activities. Whereas the administration claims the order is meant to “defend alternatives for ladies and women,” the Nationwide Girls’s Legislation Heart (NWLC) has called it “one other try to bully trans folks, together with youngsters, and misuse the federal government to implement sexist gender roles.”
The Schooling Division has additionally informed schools that it’s going to interpret and implement Title IX, a federal regulation banning sex-based discrimination, based mostly on organic intercourse. This coverage shift has prompted the division to launch multiple civil rights investigations into transgender sports activities participation insurance policies, which may doubtlessly result in the withdrawal of federal funding.
One such inquiry was launched on Friday following Trump’s public dispute with Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) throughout a White Home gathering of governors.
“Anybody right here from Maine?” the president asked the gang on the occasion. “They’re nonetheless saying they need males to play in girls’s sports activities and I can not consider that they’re doing that… so we’re not gonna give them any federal funding till they clear that up.”
Mills rapidly responded: “We’re going to comply with the regulation sir. We’ll see you in court docket.”
In an announcement on Friday, Mills reaffirmed that “the State of Maine is not going to be intimidated by the president’s threats.” She warned that if Trump makes an attempt to strip federal funding from Maine faculties, her administration, together with the legal professional common, “will take all acceptable and vital authorized motion to revive that funding and the tutorial alternative it supplies.”
Maine Legal professional Common Aaron Frey echoed Mills’s stance, stating that any try to chop federal funding over this situation “can be unlawful and in direct violation of federal court docket orders.” He additional condemned the administration’s actions, saying, “It’s disturbing that President Trump would use youngsters as pawns in advancing his political agenda.”
In the meantime, the Division of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Agriculture (USDA) have additionally launched investigations into Maine establishments over the state’s noncompliance with Trump’s anti-trans government order. Nonetheless, the authorized threshold for proving a civil rights violation is excessive, and federal funding has not been revoked from a faculty or schooling company in a long time, according to Politico.
Trump’s anti-trans government order has additionally complicated the U.S.’s function as host of the subsequent Summer season Olympics, because it restricts visas for transgender feminine athletes from different nations. In compliance with Trump’s anti-trans sports activities ban, Secretary of State Marco Rubio not too long ago issued a directive, which is now in impact throughout all diplomatic and consular posts, requiring immigration officers globally to disclaim visas to transgender athletes looking for entry into the U.S.
Transgender activist and journalist Erin Reed has described the brand new coverage as “some of the alarming escalations within the ongoing assault on transgender rights.” She reported that whereas the coverage is framed as a measure to limit transgender athletes from touring to the U.S., one provision is extraordinarily broad and should impression all transgender visa candidates. The availability stipulates that “all visas should mirror an applicant’s intercourse at beginning” and grants officers the authority to disclaim visas based mostly on “cheap suspicion” that an individual could also be transgender.
“What started with state-level bans on gender marker updates for driver’s licenses has now expanded into a possible nationwide journey ban on overseas trans entrants who’re looking for visas and severe restrictions on these looking for to go away the nation,” she warned.
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