Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing the administration of President Donald Trump over recent executive orders he says violate the civil rights of transgender children.

Two Trump orders — one banning transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports and another aimed at removing recognition of transgender people in federal policy — are aimed at “bullying” transgender youth, Ellison said at a Tuesday news conference announcing the lawsuit.

Ellison took action this week amid ongoing legal threats from the federal government against Minnesota and other states for defying Trump’s order on transgender athletes.

Ellison has maintained that following the order violates Minnesota’s human rights law and the U.S. Constitution, and he decided to preemptively sue as the Department of Justice continues to threaten legal action and cut off federal funding to the state.

“I’m not going to sit around waiting for the Trump administration to sue Minnesota,” Ellison told reporters at his office in the Capitol on Tuesday. “One, they’re wrong about the law — both federal and state law. Two, we will not let a small group of vulnerable children who are only trying to be healthy and to live their lives be demonized.”

Title IX

The Trump administration asserts that allowing those born male who identify as female to participate in women’s school sports violates Title IX, a federal law banning sex discrimination in education.

The president’s Feb. 5 executive order on transgender athletes allows federal agencies to enforce the administration’s interpretation of Title IX, though some states and high school sports groups have said they would not comply.

The Trump administration sued Maine last week after the state refused to comply with the transgender athletics order.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened to sue Minnesota in February after Ellison issued an official opinion that complying with Trump’s order would violate state law. He issued the opinion after the Minnesota State High School League, the governing body for state school athletics, sought his advice on the matter.

Earlier that month, the U.S. Department of Education started investigating Minnesota and California high school sports organizations because they planned to go against the federal government’s new policy.

Minnesota State High School League

Athletic associations had 60 days from the time of the executive order to take action on transgender athletes, according to the Minnesota State High School League, which has said its rules allowing transgender student participation currently remain in place.

The Justice Department continued to push on Minnesota after the initial threats. In an April 8 letter to Ellison, Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon demanded that Ellison clarify his legal opinion or face legal action. Dhillon also threatened to withhold federal funding from the state.

In his lawsuit filed in Minnesota U.S. District Court, Ellison argues Trump’s executive orders violate the separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution by effectively legislating from the executive branch — a right reserved for Congress — and by violating the 10th Amendment limits to federal power over the states.

Further, the lawsuit disputes the administration’s interpretation of Title IX, arguing it instead preserves protections for gender identity.

Legislative action

Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said Ellison should drop the issue and called his lawsuit a waste of state resources.

“It’s extremely disappointing that Attorney General Ellison would rather risk federal funding and file yet another taxpayer funded lawsuit against the Trump administration than simply do the right thing and keep boys out of girls sports,” Demuth said. “It’s a waste of taxpayer money to further a political agenda that makes girls less safe and makes sports less fair.”

The Minnesota Legislature earlier this year considered a bill to ban transgender athletes in school sports, though it failed on a party-line vote in a closely divided House of Representatives.

The measure sponsored by Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, called for restricting participation in girls sports at the elementary and secondary school levels to biological females as determined by genetics and reproductive organs.

Republicans called the bill the “Preserving Girls’ Sports Act” and said it would keep a level playing field in school athletics.

Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers and LGBTQ+ activists called the bill a “hateful” attack on the rights of transgender people and a distraction from issues that affect significantly broader swaths of the public.

The MSHSL has allowed students to decide whether to participate in boys or girls sports based on their gender identity since 2014.