Free Republic

A federal judge has ruled against censured Maine State Rep Laurel Libby, siding with State House Speaker Ryan Fecteau. Libby filed a federal lawsuit after she was censored in the House chamber over a social media post that depicted a high school trans-identified male winning the state championship, despite President Donald Trump’s order banning trans-identified males competing in women’s sports. District Judge Melissa R. DuBose wrote in her ruling, "After carefully considering the case law, the details presented by the parties about the House governing rules, and the process by which the House adopted the Resolution and imposed the censure...

During a portion of an interview with Portland, Maine ABC affiliate Channel 8 WMTW released on Thursday, Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) said that the opposition to allowing biological men to play women’s sports “is driven, in large part, by a lot of lack of information or misinformation.” Frey stated, “I think some of the public sentiment is being driven by a lot of half-truths or untruths, right? There have been transgender athletes — student athletes in Maine for years, for years and years and years. Safety, privacy have always been a consideration, not just for transgender students, by the...

Bobby Charles, a lawyer who served under several former Republican presidents, announced Tuesday he will run in the 2026 race to become Maine’s next governor. Although his name is not broadly known in his home state, Charles has increasingly popped up as a rumored gubernatorial candidate in Republican circles while making radio and Fox News appearances. The Maine Republican Party also briefly floated him last year as someone to run against Democratic Attorney General Aaron Frey before lawmakers decided on another candidate. His entrance into the race to succeed Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat termed out of office next year,...

Governor Janet Mills (D-ME) said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that President Donald Trump is not the law and his administration’s actions were “not rational” while discussing their transgender athletes dispute. Mills said, “Very unexpectedly the president called on me to answer a question that was unrelated to the topic at hand. I’ve been to the White House and talked to President Trump before, President Biden, President Obama, several presidents, always been a good conversation, exchange of ideas. This was different, very different, and when he said, ‘I am the law,’ basically, ‘we are the law,’ my jaw dropped, and...

A federal judge said the Trump administration must lift their freeze on federal funding to Maine. The ruling reads that the USDA "must immediately unfreeze and release to the state of Maine any federal funding that they have frozen or failed or refused to pay because of the state of Maine's alleged failure to comply with the requirements of Title IX." The administration is also "barred from freezing, terminating, or otherwise interfering with the state of Maine's future federal funding for alleged violations of Title IX without complying with the legally required procedure." The USDA announced the funding freeze and...

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) initiated an investigation into the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) on Friday for concealing children’s gender transitions from parents in a potential violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). “We have heard disturbing reports that dozens of Maine school districts allow for schools to create “gender plans” that support a student’s ‘transgender identity’ and then hide those plans from parents, claiming they don’t fall under education records. That is unacceptable and unlawful,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, announcing the investigation.

President Trump on Saturday demanded a “full-throated” apology from Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) before his administration can settle its dispute with the state for defying his executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. The University of Maine System (UMS) backed down earlier this week and promised to follow the executive order on transgender competition, but Trump suggested the dispute over federal funding won’t be resolved until Mills’ mea culpa. “While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House House...

Last month, Donald Trump signed an executive order banning biological males from competing in girls' and women's sports, restoring Title IX to its original meaning. It was a move that has forced many institutions to comply with biological reality. The NCAA capitulated, but Democrats in blue states are resisting. The Trump administration made its position very clear: comply with Title IX directives or risk losing federal funding. Maine's leftist Gov. Janet Mills defiantly declared to Trump at a meeting of governors last month, "We'll see you in court." Trump simply replied, “I look forward to it.”Maine has officially caved to...

Any false claim by the UMaine can, and will, result in onerous and even potentially criminal financial liability,' the USDA warned.. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that the University of Maine System (UMS) has agreed to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order to keep transgender athletes out of women's sports. UMS, a network of eight public universities in Maine, was subject to a temporary pause in funding from the USDA last week during an ongoing battle between the state and the federal government over trans inclusion in women's and girls sports. The funding was reinstated just days...

Sebago, Maine — You know you're in Maine when the pancakes come hot off a 100-year-old wood stove. But drill into Alan Greene's eighth-generation maple syrup operation in the town of Sebago, and you'll find it doesn't run as smoothly as it used to. "The last 10 years, we are definitely becoming warmer earlier," said Greene, who runs Greene Maple Farms. "We're not getting the cold and the gradual warm-up. We're getting warm-up, warm-up, warm-up, with deep freezes in between." It's been a cold winter in Maine so far this year. But across the country, over time, climate change has...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: The Trump administration pauses ALL federal funding to Maine Universities for REFUSING to ban men from women’s sports. 8:11 PM · Mar 11, 2025

The Trump administration has now formally determined that Maine is in violation of federal Title IX rules with its refusal to abide by the ban on transgender athletes playing in girls’ sports. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has sent a letter to Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey to inform Maine officials that the state’s education department has violated the rules and that a compliance review is now underway, WMTW-TV reported. The February 25 letter states that Maine “violates Title IX by denying female student athletes in the State of Maine an equal opportunity...

Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills is scrambling to stem political damage from revelations five weeks before the election that her administration was teaching students in an online curriculum that “MAGA” is racist. Both in Tuesday’s debate and in her campaign advertising, the vulnerable Democrat has attempted to fend off allegations about education improprieties from her Republican opponent, former Gov. Paul LePage.

How is this not national news?? 🚨 Democrat Governor of Maine Janet Mills’ brother pocketed $22 million into his shell company that was meant for towns in Maine “A year before she took office, her brother Peter Mills, received $22 million through a shell company called Western Mountains and Rivers Corporation. This company also received 670 acres of land on the Dead River, all courtesy of a company called Central Maine Power. When Janet Mills assumed office a year later, she immediately approved CMP to clear cut in 145 mile corridor through Western Maine without the endorsement of any of...

Elon Musk just revealed that the government handed the Navy $12 billion to build new submarines—and not a single submarine was built. When investigators asked where the money went, Navy officials shrugged and said they had no idea. “There’s a case where I think Senator Collins was telling me about how she gave the Navy $12 billion for more submarines, got no extra submarines, and then held a hearing to say where the $12 billion go. “And they were like, we don’t know. That was it. I mean, basically, stuff is so crazy. Only the federal government could get away...

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine House of Representatives voted Tuesday evening to formally censure a lawmaker after she drew national attention for a Facebook post that singled out a high school athlete in Maine. Rep. Laurel Libby's social media post criticized Maine's policy of allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls' sports. "When the woke Left can't silence women, they cancel them," Libby said over calls of "order!" from Democrats. The debate was fierce from the start, with Democrat's criticizing Libby for using the image of a minor to make a political point. "No child designed these rules, and no...

Republican senators vented their concerns about tech billionaire Elon Musk’s aggressive approach to freezing federal spending and cutting government jobs during a private meeting with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles on Wednesday. Gathered in the historic Mansfield Room outside the Senate chamber, some GOP senators complained about what they view as a lack of transparency about what Musk and his team of engineers are doing at federal agencies. They flagged cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which fired 1,400 employees Monday, and said Musk’s team hadn’t responded to their requests for information, according to sources familiar with...

Democrat Maine Gov. Janet Mills is attempting to thwart federal civil rights law to allow the grooming of children in schools.In Maine, where gender and queer theories reign supreme, at least 57 of its 192 school districts have policies that exclude parents from knowing whether their children start identifying as transgender.According to documents reviewed by The Federalist and obtained by Parents Defending Education through public records requests, a significant portion of Maine’s public school districts — including its most populous ones — hide students’ critical medical and social information from parents if they are unwilling to allow their child to...

In this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Victor Davis Hanson discusses a recent heated exchange between President Donald Trump and Maine Gov. Janet T. Mills at a White House meeting of governors. The confrontation centered on Trump’s executive order banning males from participating in female sports, which Mills resisted. Hanson argues that Mills’ stance is not only out of line with public opinion, but also basic constitutional principles: “[Gov. Janet T. Mills’] wrong on public opinion and she’s wrong on sporting authorization. She’s wrong in the idea that a state law can supersede a federal law....

The Maine House of Representatives voted to censure Rep. Laurel Libby Tuesday night for a recent social media post pointing out that a transgender high school athlete won a girls' competition. The Maine House's Democratic majority, led by Speaker Ryan Fecteau, passed the censure resolution Tuesday night in a 75-70 vote. Libby is now no longer allowed to speak on the house floor or vote until she issues an apology.