AUGUSTA — Just a little over seven months into the second Trump administration, Maine is involved in 33 legal battles with the federal government.

At stake is an estimated $186 million in federal funds, Attorney General Aaron Frey said Thursday.

“The reason my office has been involved as much as it has been is because of different actions that have harmed Maine and serve to harm Mainers,” Frey said.

As attorney general, Frey, a Democrat, is the state’s chief law enforcement officer responsible for a wide range of issues, such as civil rights, consumer protection, prosecution of homicides, felony drug cases and major fraud. 

But his office is now involved in cases — often with several other attorneys general from across the country — as varied as challenges to Elon Musk and DOGE, defunding public health, voting restrictions, cuts to libraries and museums, a freeze on supplemental nutrition benefits, birthright citizenship, mental health funding cuts, and a challenge to efforts to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds.

And in addition to those cases, Frey’s office is representing Maine in a battle with the Trump administration over the issue of transgender girls playing on girls’ high school sports teams.

The federal government sued Maine in April claiming the state is violating anti-discrimination law by allowing transgender girls to participate in female sports.

At the time, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Trump administration is “going to continue to fight for women.” 

Frey said the attorneys in his office are handling that case — and all others — without overtime or an increase in costs.

“I don’t know how long this will be sustainable,” he said. “As we sit here right now, we’ve been able to manage every case that’s come in the door in large part because of the talent of the office and because we’re able to take advantage of a multi-state coalition of Democratic attorneys general.”

For some, Frey’s approach with the Trump administration doesn’t sit well, particularly because Maine is being sued for its interpretation of Title IX, the 1972 federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex.

Maine interprets the law and its state-level Human Rights Act as protection for transgender girls who want to play sports on girls’ sports teams. 

Assistant House Minority Leader Katrina Smith (R-Palermo) described Frey’s across the board legal challenges as “aggressive.”

“It seems more aggressive than we need to be when we’re in the hot seat,” she said.

She also questioned whether the office can keep up with other work, recalling a time in the last legislative session when lawmakers were told the AG’s office didn’t have time to investigate fraudulent contractors.

“I think Maine is close to a 50/50 state and this approach by the AG isn’t what we’d want to see our AG doing,” she said. “We need to take a cautious approach to make sure we’re representing the interests of Maine people.” 

Fellow Democrats first selected Frey as attorney general in December 2018 and he’s been reelected by the majority party two times since. He’s now in his last two-year term as attorney general, facing the eight-year limit for constitutional officers.

When Frey took over as AG — following a six-year stint by Gov. Janet Mills — it was the last two years of Trump’s first term. The difference between then and now is stark.

In 2018, Frey said “it seemed as though there were some restraint.” Frey did join other states in suing over funding for the border wall and just a few other issues.

“I don’t know if it was restraint President Trump was exercising or those around him encouraging him to be a good steward of his office,” Frey said. 

But as Frey put it “Trump 2.0” is a different matter.

“We’re seeing a president who is eager to do everything that pops into his head that he promised on the campaign trail,” Frey said. “We’re seeing less restraint on the president and his actions, we’re seeing a willingness to stretch the bounds of the law.”

With most of the cases still pending, Frey said Maine did chalk up a win earlier this year when the federal government resumed funding for thousands of school meals following a challenge on the Title IX issue.

The other Title IX suit is still in the pipeline and Frey said he believes circuit court opinions will support Maine’s interpretation that “Title IX does indeed protect the participation rights of transgender female students participating on the team of their identified gender.” 

As he looks toward the resolution of other cases, many of which could end up before the Supreme Court, he hopes the judicial branch of government will give clear guidance.

“I haven’t seen much courage yet from a strong majority of the court to actually make crystal clear what it’s saying the law is,” Frey said. “It seems to me there’s an unwillingness to put a check on the president of the United States.”