U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Wednesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against the state of Maine after it refused several requests to comply with President Donald Trump’s directive banning males from competing in female sports. In a joint press conference with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Bondi said the action was a last resort by the administration after months of warning the state and threatening federal funding.

The state of Maine filed a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins for revoking funding after the state refused to comply with the Trump administration’s directive banning men from competing in women’s sports. The lawsuit claims the USDA’s revocation of funding is “blatantly unlawful” and violates the Administrative Procedure Act for “freezing federal funds allocated to Maine to feed schoolchildren.” Funding from the USDA was cut on April 2 after Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills got into a public spat with President Donald Trump during which the governor declined to comply with Trump’s ban on men in women’s sports.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Monday temporarily paused funding to the entire University of Maine System (UMS) due to the state’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills refusing to comply with President Donald Trump’s order banning men from competing in women’s sports. Trump and Mills had a fiery exchange at the White House in February in which the president called the governor out for pledging not to comply with the order to protect women’s sports, which Mills responded by threatening legal action against the president. The USDA opened an investigation into Maine’s department of education the following day to review UMS’s compliance with Title IX, which protects women from discrimination.

A commonsense issue that Americans overwhelmingly support is expected to face Democratic resistance in the Senate. Senators will vote to invoke cloture on Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act Monday evening. Every GOP senator is expected to vote to advance the bill, but the legislation faces uncertain prospects due to the upper chamber’s 60-vote legislative threshold and expected opposition from Senate Democrats.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday officially signed an executive order that bans biological males from competing in women's and girl's sports.