Tag: law

US Department of Education refers Maine to Justice Department after AG’s Office rejects resolution on Title IX Violations

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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.

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Throwing away good money for a bad reason. ABN

Amy Coney Barrett never divulged her membership in a small, tightly knit Christian group called People of Praise

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Ms. Barrett told the senators that she was a faithful Catholic, and that her religious beliefs would not affect her decisions as an appellate judge. But her membership in a small, tightly knit Christian group called People of Praise never came up at the hearing, and might have led to even more intense questioning.

Some of the group’s practices would surprise many faithful Catholics. Members of the group swear a lifelong oath of loyalty, called a covenant, to one another, and are assigned and are accountable to a personal adviser, called a “head” for men and a “handmaid” for women. The group teaches that husbands are the heads of their wives and should take authority over the family.

Current and former members say that the heads and handmaids give direction on important decisions, including whom to date or marry, where to live, whether to take a job or buy a home, and how to raise children.

Legal scholars said that such loyalty oaths could raise legitimate questions about a judicial nominee’s independence and impartiality. The scholars said in interviews that while there certainly was no religious test for office, it would have been relevant for the senators to examine what it means for a judicial nominee to make an oath to a group that could wield significant authority over its members’ lives.

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Press Release: U.S. Department of Education Announces Consequences for Maine’s Title IX Noncompliance

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The Department of Education Is Referring the Case to the Department of Justice; Initiating Federal Funding Termination Proceeding

April 11, 2025

Today, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) referred its Title IX investigation into the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for further enforcement action. Simultaneously, ED will initiate an administrative proceeding to adjudicate termination of MDOE’s federal K-12 education funding, including formula and discretionary grants.

These actions are a direct result of MDOE’s continued refusal to comply with Title IX. ED issued a noncompliance finding on March 19, and sent a final warning letter to the state on March 31. 

“The Department has given Maine every opportunity to come into compliance with Title IX, but the state’s leaders have stubbornly refused to do so, choosing instead to prioritize an extremist ideological agenda over their students’ safety, privacy, and dignity,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “The Maine Department of Education will now have to defend its discriminatory practices before a Department administrative law judge and in a federal court against the Justice Department. Governor Mills would have done well to adhere to the wisdom embedded in the old idiom—be careful what you wish for. Now she will see the Trump Administration in court.” 

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Trump admin orders ICE agents to check migrants’ compliance with online registry — and refer case to DOJ if they don’t

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The Trump administration has ordered immigration agents to verify whether migrants have submitted their names and personal information to an online registry as part of an expansion of the president’s mass deportation effort.

If migrants fail to register or don’t carry proof of their registration with them, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are being told to “treat the alien’s case as an immigration enforcement priority” and to “refer the case to the US Department of Justice for criminal prosecution,” according to the memo.

An ICE source said they believe many illegal migrants won’t register, becoming prime targets for arrest and deportation.

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Idaho bans vaccine mandates in schools and businesses in a first-of-its-kind ‘medical freedom’ bill.

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Idaho has banned vaccine mandates in schools and businesses in a first-of-its-kind ‘medical freedom’ bill.

The ‘Idaho Medical Freedom Act’ bars private businesses, schools and government entities from denying admission or services to a person for not having received a ‘medical intervention,’ including a vaccine, procedure or medication. 

It makes Idaho the first state to in the nation to outlaw vaccine mandates in both public and private sectors.   

The legislation was signed into law last week by Idaho Governor Brad Little, a Republican, and is expected to go into effect July 1. 

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FBI director Kash Patel removed as director of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

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Decision transfers control of ATF away from US justice department to the defense department for first time

The Trump administration has replaced the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, as the interim head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and installed Dan Driscoll, secretary of the army, in his place, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The abrupt change, which was announced to senior ATF officials on Wednesday morning, for the first time placed control of the embattled agency responsible for enforcing the nation’s gun laws to the defense department.

Patel has been running the FBI and the ATF for months, but it had proved to be overly burdensome, and Driscoll was selected to replace Patel as the interim head, as he was one of the few Senate-confirmed appointees available, one of the people said.

Trump’s aides have viewed the ATF and its mission with skepticism and have discussed gutting the ATF or merging it with the Drug Enforcement Administration, another small and underfunded agency that has previously been part of the justice department.

The decision to have the army secretary run the ATF could be the precursor to such a move or at least to dramatically reduce its size and scope. In recent weeks, ATF agents have been diverted to help with enforcing Trump’s immigration agenda.

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RESIGN: Justice Roberts’ secret friendship with Norm Eisen has been revealed…

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After you finish this blog, you’ll be asking the million-dollar question: Why is Chief Justice John Roberts hanging out with the Deep State’s #1 color revolution architect?

Turns out the left’s favorite “Republican” has some very interesting buddies.

According to Norm Eisen—the man who practically wrote the Deep State’s playbook on color revolutions, all things anti-Trump, and lawfare in the US—he and Chief Justice John Roberts are not only good pals, but they even spent a week together in the Czech Republic. According to Norm, the two BFFs were there working on “American rule of law” issues.

Hmm…

Norm was so proud of this that he actually bragged about the trip and made it very clear that Roberts isn’t corrupt—he’s just a “close friend” who happened to fly overseas and stay at Eisen’s posh 150-room palace to collaborate on transatlantic political projects.

Really…

And no, that’s not just weird; it’s a massive conflict of interest and could also explain a lot.

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Eisen is not Roberts’ BFF, he’s Roberts’ handler. ABN