Federal and state authorities are clashing over Maine’s policy allowing transgender students to compete in girls’ sports in spite of an executive order by President Donald Trump seeking to ban trans athletes.

Debate over the issue escalated this week after a Republican state lawmaker posted about the issue on social media and Trump said at a gathering of governors in Washington, D.C., that he would withhold all federal funding to Maine until it changes the policy.

Here are a few things to know about Maine’s policy and Trump’s threat to withhold funding:

Can Trump actually do that?

It may be up to the courts to decide.

Dmitry Bam, a constitutional law professor at the University of Maine School of Law, said a president cannot impose his own conditions on federal grant funding and has no legal authority to withhold all federal funding to coerce a state into adopting a certain policy.

The constitution, he said, clearly puts that power in the hands of Congress, which appropriates federal grant money and establishes conditions that need to be met to receive the funding.

Those conditions, Bam said, need to be clear, unambiguous and agreed to before a funding agreement is executed, and cannot be coercive. A  president can’t come in and make up and create his own conditions, he said.

But Bam cautioned that, to his knowledge, the U.S. Supreme Court has not taken up a case exactly on point with Trump’s actions. And people are correct to wonder whether the courts, especially the nation’s highest court, will in fact act as a backstop to Trump.

“We do have a (supreme) court that’s pretty solidly Republican, and the president has appointed three of those justices,” he said, “so I think there is rightful skepticism and concern that our tradition of looking to the courts and relying on the courts as a check on executive power — is that really going to happen now?”

How much federal money comes to Maine?

In fiscal year 2024, Maine received and spent about $4.8 billion in federal funding, not including funds distributed to nonprofits, the state university system or quasi-state entities such as MaineHousing, according to the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services.

In education alone, the state is distributing $250 million in federal funds to school districts in the current fiscal year. School districts also receive other federal funds that the state department doesn’t track. The funds are used for a variety of things, including academic programs for disadvantaged students and English language learners, special education, nutrition and career and technical education.

What is Maine’s policy on transgender athletes?

The Maine Principals’ Association, which oversees high school sports, approved a policy last year allowing transgender athletes to compete on teams either according to their birth-assigned gender or gender identity, but not both at the same time.

It requires students to declare their gender identity with their school if it differs from the sex they were assigned at birth and leaves it to schools to verify the student’s gender identity for purposes of athletic registration and participation in sporting events.

The MPA has said that the policy is meant to align with the Maine Human Rights Act, which states that the opportunity to participate in “all educational … and all extracurricular activities without discrimination because of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, a physical or mental disability, ancestry, national origin, race, color or religion is recognized and declared to be a civil right.”

Can the president override the state law?

Bam, the university law professor, said that federal law generally trumps state law. But Bam said that applies to “a valid federal law.”

“I think the difficult question here is what is the federal law in question here, and what power does the president have to restrict the use of funds that might have been approved by Congress” and agreed to by the state, Bam said.

How many transgender students are competing in high school sports in Maine? 

The exact number was not clear Friday but it is a small fraction of the overall number of high school athletes.

About 1,200 young people in Maine between the ages of 13 and 17, or less than 2% of the population in that age range, identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute, a research center on sexual orientation, gender identity law and public policy at the UCLA School of Law.

Maine state survey data suggest the number is larger. In 2023, 2,374 Maine high schoolers, or 4.5%, identified as transgender, according to the Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey.

It’s unclear exactly how many of those students participate in sports or if the Maine Principals’ Association tracks it. Mike Burnham, executive director of the interscholastic division at the MPA, would not discuss the issue with a reporter Friday.

Until April 2023, the principals’ association required transgender athletes to obtain waivers to participate. During the 10-year span from 2013 to 2023, a total of 57 transgender students asked for waivers and got them.

How many states ban transgender students from competing in sports?

Nationwide, 25 states ban transgender youth from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit that tracks gender equality issues nationwide. Two states — Virginia and Alaska — have state regulations or agency policies that ban transgender students from participating in sports.

Twenty-three states, including Maine, and Washington, D.C., do not ban transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.

At the collegiate level, the NCAA announced earlier this month that it would update its policies following Trump’s executive order aiming to end transgender athletes participating in women’s sports.

The new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only. Student-athletes assigned male at birth can practice with women’s teams but not compete.

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