AUGUSTA, ME – Gov. Janet Mills and her defiance of federal laws, executive orders, and even the First Amendment has Maine residents paying the price.

As the state defies Title IX and executive orders that aim to curtail radical gender ideology in public schools and to keep gender-confused males out of women’s athletics, some Maine schools are hiding gender confusion from parents while males in the state continue to win athletic competitions over females. The state legislature has even censured a state lawmaker for simply drawing public attention to the unfairness of these men competing against women in sports. Maine is also still facing a Title VII religious liberty lawsuit from state health care workers who were unlawfully fired under the state’s unconstitutional COVID shot mandate for refusing the shot due to their religious beliefs – something Title VII explicitly prohibits.

Gov. Mills’ defiance now has the Trump administration both investigating and suing the state. A Department of Education investigation found that the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) is violating federal Title IX anti-discrimination law by allowing males to compete in female sports and to “occupy women-only intimate spaces,” such as bathrooms and locker rooms. The Department of Justice is suing to get the federal court to order Maine to direct all schools to protect female athletes by prohibiting males in athletic competitions designated for females. In the meantime, the Education Department is already moving to terminate federal K-12 funding for the Maine Department of Education over its “continued refusal” to protect girls’ sports and privacy in public schools. 

In a separate investigation, the Education Department also found that the MDOE is allowing 57 state school districts to create secret “gender plans” to support students’ gender identities while concealing those plans from parents. These school district policies involve requiring staff and students to “neutralize language in classrooms,” use “preferred pronouns,” and to “dehumanize the family unit” with gender-neutral terms. The policies also force girls to use restrooms and private spaces with boys where they may have to undress in front of them. One school district even hosted “groomer training” from an LGBT organization that has pushed indoctrination on children.

The MDOE claims these “gender plans” do not fall under education records so schools are not obligated to share them with parents. However, the Education Department argues that Maine’s gender secrecy policies violate the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which gives parents the right to school records pertaining to their own children. The Education Department has warned the MDOE that Maine schools must comply with federal law and that violations of FERPA could result in further litigation.

The investigations and enforcement actions against Maine stem from President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination In K-12 Schooling” and “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

Yet, Gov. Mills and the MDOE are refusing to comply with these federal laws and orders asserting they will adhere to the state’s own legal framework. Gov. Mills has vowed to fight the Trump administration in court rather than curtail the state’s efforts to advance radical gender ideology.

In addition, Republican State Representative Laurel Libby was censured by the democrat-controlled Maine House of Representatives for a February 2025 social media post identifying a biological male athlete who took first place in a girl’s track and field competition. Rep. Libby noted that the boy had previously finished in 5^th place in a boys’ pole vault event, but took first place in the girl’s state championship. After Rep. Libby refused to apologize, the Maine House voted to censure her and remove her speaking and voting privileges until she apologizes, which effectively stops her from representing her 9,000 constituents.   

In a highly questionable statement, Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau said that “Rep. Libby does not have a First Amendment right to vote, as a legislator, on any particular piece of legislation.”

Rep. Libby has filed a lawsuit claiming that the censure clearly violates her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, arguing that it silences her free speech and disenfranchises her constituents. All six of Maine’s federal district court judges recused themselves from hearing her case since a parent of the boy in the social media post works in the Maine federal court system. Instead, a Biden-appointed U.S. district judge from Rhode Island heard the case and ruled that the censure penalty fell under “legislative immunity” and did not warrant judicial intervention. After the First Circuit Court of Appeals denied her request for an emergency appeal, Rep. Libby has filed an emergency petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her case currently resides with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson who oversees emergency requests from the First Circuit.

Since Rep. Libby’s censure, at least one other biological male has taken first place over girls in a Maine state track and field competition.

As Maine’s government doubles down on false gender ideology in direct conflict with federal and constitutional rights, Liberty Counsel has been fighting and continues to fight on behalf of Maine residents in several religious liberty cases.

In 2020, Liberty Counsel litigated against Gov. Mill’s unconstitutional COVID church lockdowns that imposed severe restrictions, such as no church gatherings, including no parking lot services, and carried criminal penalties for violations. Even though Gov. Mills rescinded the church lockdown order before an injunction could be granted, the constitutional rights of churchgoers had been violated.

In a separate case, seven Maine health care workers have been fighting for justice since 2021 in Alicia Lowe, et al., v. Janet Mills after being unlawfully denied religious accommodations and fired due to their religious beliefs during the state’s unconstitutional COVID-19 mandate. Gov. Mills went as far as threatening to revoke the licenses of all health care employers who failed to mandate the experimental COVID-19 injection for their employees. Maine still has an active state law that prohibits state health care workers from ever requesting a religious accommodation for a mandated shot even though federal Title VII law commands state employers to provide such reasonable accommodations for religious beliefs. On behalf of the health care workers, Liberty Counsel has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review Maine’s discriminatory system that currently forces people to choose between their livelihoods and their religious convictions. 

Most recently, the University of Maine System (UMS) unlawfully rescinded a church’s winning bid in a property sale after public, legislative, and donor outcry over the church’s biblical beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman and that human sexuality consists of just two genders, male and female. In the lawsuit, Calvary Chapel Belfast alleges UMS officials subsequently held a second, rigged bidding process that deviated from its normal procedures and awarded the building to a secular bidder. The lawsuit contends that UMS unlawfully conspired and discriminated against the church on the basis of religion in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Governor Janet Mills’ blatant defiance to the rule of law is a serious problem. If Gov. Janet Mills and state officials continue to remain hostile toward religion and detached from biological reality that men and women are different, federal laws like Title VII, Title IX, executive orders, and even First Amendment rights will continue to be violated in the state. Gov. Mills and state officials are not above the law. This defiance is leading to civil rights erosions in Maine and it must stop.”

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