District Court Judge John Woodcock, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, issued a temporary restraining order on Friday in a case brought by the state of Maine against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
An email message seeking comment was sent Saturday to the Agriculture Department.
At issue was the freezing of federal funds to Maine for certain administrative and technological functions in the state's schools. A letter from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins explained the decision stemmed from a disagreement between the state and federal government over whether Maine was complying with Title IX, the federal law that bans discrimination in education based on sex.
Soon after the secretary's letter was sent, Maine's Department of Education could not access several sources of federal funds for a state nutrition program, according to the court's written order.
The lawsuit, brought by state Attorney General Aaron Frey, states that the child nutrition program received or was due to receive more than $1.8 million for the current fiscal year.
The dispute between Maine and the Trump administration has roots in the president's efforts to protect female sports teams from having to compete with teams that allow biological males. In February, the president and governor sparred during a meeting at the White House. As the president discussed an executive order on protecting female sports teams, Governor Janet Mills said she would defy his order.
“You’d better comply,” Trump warned. “Otherwise, you’re not getting any federal funding.”
The governor responded that she'd see the administration in court.
Woodcock wrote that his order did not directly address the larger dispute that formed the “backdrop of the impasse.”
The court's order came the same day Maine officials said the state would not comply with a ban on males in high school female sports in the wake of a Trump administration finding that the state violated antidiscrimination laws by allowing the the boys to participate.
The U.S. Education Department said in March that an investigation concluded the Maine Department of Education violated the federal Title IX law by allowing males to participate on girls’ teams.
