{"id":1530076,"date":"2025-04-13T01:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T05:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1530076"},"modified":"2025-04-13T01:35:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T05:35:00","slug":"judge-orders-trump-admin-to-unfreeze-funds-withheld-from-maine-over-transgender-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/judge-orders-trump-admin-to-unfreeze-funds-withheld-from-maine-over-transgender-athletes\/1530076\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Orders Trump Admin To Unfreeze Funds Withheld From Maine Over Transgender Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge Orders Trump Admin To Unfreeze Funds Withheld From Maine Over Transgender Athletes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A U.S. District Court in Maine issued a ruling<\/a> April 11 ordering the federal government to release funding to Maine that was frozen over the state\u2019s decision to disregard an executive order and allow transgender athletes in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

Conflict between the state and federal government began after President Donald Trump issued the order<\/a> titled \u201cDefending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government\u201d on his first day back in the White House for a second term.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Epoch Times’ Travis Gillmore reports<\/a> that in a 70-page ruling, Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. ordered the Department of Agriculture and its secretary, Brooke Rollins, to \u201cimmediately unfreeze\u201d any money held back because the state chose not to follow the president\u2019s executive action.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Agencies are also barred from withholding future funding on similar grounds.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the court distanced itself from the debate over transgender athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn ruling on the state\u2019s request, the court is not weighing in on the merits of the controversy about transgender athletes that forms the backdrop of the impasse between the state and the federal defendants,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> Woodcock wrote in his decision.<\/p>\n

He went on to explain that the decision was based on the Agriculture Department\u2019s failure to follow regulatory protocols when withholding the funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, the federal defendants have not argued in this case that the relevant federal laws and regulations for terminating federal funding of state programs do not apply to this situation, nor do they claim that they complied with the applicable federal law in the events resulting in this litigation.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Trump administration argued that the court did not have proper jurisdiction to hear the case, and that Maine did not \u201callege irreparable harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tensions boiled over during a February meeting with governors at the White House, when Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills sparred over the issue in a heated back-and-forth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Maine opted not to prohibit transgender athletes from competing against women, Rollins sent a letter April 2 to Mills alerting her that the Agriculture Department was \u201cfreezing Maine\u2019s federal funds for certain administrative and technological functions in schools,\u201d according to the court ruling.<\/p>\n

In its lawsuit<\/a> filed on April 7, Maine said it was unable to access approximately $3 million.<\/p>\n

The state told the court the money was used for programs that helped provide meals to schools, childcare facilities, and disabled adults.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Rollins\u2019s April 2 letter to Mills saying<\/a> the funds had been frozen, the agriculture secretary said the pause \u201cdoes not impact federal feeding programs or direct assistance to Mainers; if a child was fed today, they will be fed tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

State officials celebrated the ruling and said it would help protect nutritional programs meant to benefit at-risk populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis temporary restraining order confirms the Trump administration did not follow the rule of law when it cut program funds that go to feed schoolchildren and vulnerable adults,\u201d <\/strong><\/em>Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a statement<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis order preserves Maine\u2019s access to certain congressionally appropriated funds by prohibiting an unlawful freeze by the administration.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 04\/12\/2025 – 21:35<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/judge-orders-trump-admin-unfreeze-funds-withheld-maine-over-transgender-athletes<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge Orders Trump Admin To Unfreeze Funds Withheld From Maine Over Transgender Athletes A U.S. District Court in Maine issued a ruling April 11 ordering…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1530077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1530076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1530077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}