As the deadline set in a letter of impasse the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights had sent to Maine state officials two weeks ago drew down to its final hours, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office issued a response saying the state would neither sign a resolution agreement nor propose an alternative, setting into motion a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice.
[RELATED: Mills’ Continued Defiance of Trump’s Deadline for Title IX Compliance Could Cost Maine Hugely]
“Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulation prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams,” Maine Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster wrote to the regional director of the U.S. DOE’s Office of Civil Rights. Her letter chided the federal agency for wrongly interpreting the statute and added that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution also justified Maine’s policy — in direct defiance of the federal instruction.
That letter prompted a fast response from the DoE’s civil rights office:
“Accordingly, OCR has determined compliance cannot be secured by informal or voluntary means,” it wrote, adding: “OCR now refers this matter to the Department of Justice with a recommendation for appropriate proceedings to enforce all legally available remedies.”
The response to Maine’s attorney general went on to notify the state that it is “initiating administrative proceedings to suspend, terminate, defer final approval, and/or refuse to grant or continue Federal financial assistance to the MDOE.
Throwing away good money for a bad reason. ABN
American Buddhist Net 