On Friday, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to restore any funding that the department is withholding from Maine over an alleged failure to comply with Title IX requirements. 

Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs – including athletics. 

The order also prevents the USDA from “terminating, freezing, or otherwise interfering with the State’s access to federal funds based on alleged Title IX violations without following the process required by federal statute.” 

The temporary restraining order comes days after Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey sued the Trump Administration for freezing funds used for Maine schools. 

The USDA froze that funding on April 2 for alleged Title IX violations. 

“This temporary restraining order confirms the Trump Administration did not follow the rule of law when it cut program funds that go to feed school children and vulnerable adults,” Frey said in response to the judge’s ruling. “This order preserves Maine’s access to certain congressionally appropriated funds by prohibiting an unlawful freeze by the administration.  No one in our constitutional republic is above the law and we will continue to fight to hold this administration to account.” 

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sent a letter to Governor Janet Mills on April 2. 

“I am freezing Maine's federal funds for certain administrative and technological functions in schools,” wrote Rollins. “This is only the beginning, though you are free to end it at any time by protecting women and girls in compliance with federal law."

According to the Maine Attorney General’s Office, the Child Nutrition Program of the Maine Department of Education was unable to access funding on April 3.