Complying with President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports would violate Minnesota law, according to the state’s top legal officer.

Attorney General Keith Ellison weighed in on the issue at the request of Erich Martens, executive director of the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL).

Trump’s executive order gave a 60-day window for athletic associations like the MSHSL to convene and take action to require athletes to compete based on their sex assigned at birth; organizations that don’t comply risk the rescission of federal funds.

In the days following that order, the MSHSL said it would abide by its existing policy of allowing athletes to participate according to their gender identity and would “seek clarification and direction from the state” on how Trump’s directive interplays with the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

In his reply to the MSHSL, Ellison analyzed two key issues: whether Trump’s order supersedes Minnesota law and whether the MSHSL would violate state law by following the directive.

Ellison concluded Trump’s executive order does not supersede state law because it was “not issued pursuant to a statutory mandate or express delegation of authority from Congress” and “does not have the force of law.”

The attorney general further concluded that following Trump’s order would violate the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA), which prohibits discrimination in educational programs based on a person’s gender identity.

“An educational institution violates the MHRA by discriminating in any manner in the services or benefits it offers a student because of the student’s gender identity,” Ellison wrote. “This includes prohibiting transgender student athletes from participating in extracurricular activities, as such a practice inherently separates and segregates transgender student athletes from other student athletes based solely on their gender identity.”

When asked for comment, an MSHSL spokesperson acknowledged the organization had received Ellison’s advisory opinion but did not say how it would proceed.

Earlier this week, the Minnesota House Education Policy Committee heard a Republican bill to ban transgender participation in girls’ sports.

The original version of the bill, called the Preserving Girls’ Sports Act, would have required female student-athletes to provide a signed doctor’s statement confirming their sex based on their “reproductive anatomy,” “naturally occurring level of testosterone,” or “an analysis of the student’s chromosomes.”

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said last week it would begin investigating the MSHSL and the California Interscholastic Foundation, which both stated they would allow transgender participation in sports.