A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release federal funds allocated to Maine by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which had been frozen following a dispute between President Donald Trump and Maine Governor Janet Mills over transgender athletes.
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock, a George W. Bush appointee, granted the state’s request for a temporary restraining order on Friday. The USDA, one of several agencies where Maine’s federal funding has come under threat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, NPR reported.
The conflict began after Trump issued an executive order in early February banning biological male student athletes from competing on girls’ sports teams. The order also directed the federal government to withhold funding from educational programs that, in its view, deny women and girls equal athletic opportunities.
In response, the Maine Principals’ Association, which oversees school athletics in the state, announced it would continue allowing transgender girls to compete, stating that the federal directive conflicts with state law. On February 21, during a governors’ event at the White House, Trump publicly criticized Mills for defying his executive order, NPR noted further.
“You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t,” Trump told Mills.
Mills replied, “See you in court.”
Later, Trump demanded that Mills apologize. “We need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again, before this case can be settled,” he wrote on his Truth Social page.
In the aftermath of the dispute, the Trump administration launched multiple investigations into the state of Maine, citing potential violations of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education, according to Maine Public Radio. The probes involve both the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, NPR noted.
The USDA became involved earlier this month. In an April 2 letter, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins informed Governor Mills that federal funding for specific administrative and technology-related functions in schools would be suspended due to her “defiance of federal law.”
The exact amount of aid impacted remains unclear, but Rollins warned that additional research and education-related funding would also be subject to review. In response, the state of Maine filed a legal complaint on Monday, asserting that the USDA failed to follow the required statutory and regulatory procedures before cutting off federal funds.
In the lawsuit, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey called on the court to restore the funding, emphasizing that the aid supports school meal programs for children across the state.
In his ruling, Woodcock said the USDA acted “without observance of procedure required by law,” noting that the department failed to hold any hearing or notify Congress.
“Secretary Rollins cannot simply declare Maine in violation of Title IX and pull funding with zero due process,” the judge wrote.
A previously sent letter from the Maine attorney general’s office rejected the administration’s resolution agreement to restore funding.
“The Maine Department of Education and the Maine Office of the Attorney General have reviewed the draft Resolution Agreement and your Impasse Letter dated March 31, 2025. We will not sign the Resolution Agreement, and we do not have revisions to counter propose. We agree that we are at an impasse,” it said.
“Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams. Your letters to date do not cite a single case that so holds,” it added.
Poll after poll shows that Maine’s public officials are on the wrong side of the issue. Most Americans — and perhaps most Maine residents as well — reject allowing biological males to compete against biological females in sporting events.
