Attorney General Ellison sues to ‘stop Trump from bullying vulnerable children’ in Minnesota
Files lawsuit as Trump Administration repeatedly threatens to cut federal funding to Minnesota schools if state does not cave to Trump’s attempts to deny civil rights of transgender people
AG Ellison alleges two of Trump’s executive orders targeting transgender children and adults violate U.S. Constitution and Title IX; asks court to declare orders unconstitutional and unlawful and stop DOJ threats to Minnesota
AG Ellison issued binding legal opinion in February 2025 that Trump executive order purporting to ban transgender children playing school sports does not override protections for transgender children in Minnesota law
‘Trump’s unconscionable attack is bullying, plain and simple’
April 22, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Ellison filed a federal lawsuit today to “stop President Donald Trump and his administration from bullying vulnerable children in this state,” as the first sentence of the lawsuit states. The lawsuit comes as the Trump Administration has repeatedly threatened Minnesota with the loss of federal funding for Minnesota schools unless Minnesota complies with two executive orders that purport to ban transgender children from playing school sports and to broadly deny the civil rights of transgender people.
In the lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison lays out four causes of action against two Trump executive orders — the “Gender Ideology Order” and the “Sports Ban Order” — and U.S. Department of Justice letters to Minnesota. Those letters threaten to cut federal funding to Minnesota schools and take legal action if the Attorney General does not reverse his formal opinion on Minnesota law. The claims are:
- The executive orders and DOJ letters violate the separation of powers in the U.S. Constitution by exceeding the President’s powers and usurping Congress’s exclusive powers to legislate, noting among other points that “the Constitution does not authorize the Executive Branch to override Congress based on the President’s policy preferences;”
- The President and the Administration not only have no authority under Title IX to rescind federal funding from Minnesota schools because Minnesota law allows transgender women and girls to participate on sports teams that align with their gender identity, but they violate Title IX by doing so;
- The Trump Administration’s attempt to force Attorney General Ellison to revise or rescind his February 2025 binding legal opinion, which states that the President’s “Sports Ban Order” does not have the force of law or supersede state-based legal protections for transgender children, violates the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the federal government from commandeering the States to carry out federal law or policy; and
- The DOJ letters violate the Administrative Procedure Act, because they are in conflict with Title IX and rely on unauthorized executive orders, and because they are arbitrary and capricious.
On behalf of the State of Minnesota, Attorney General Ellison asks the court to declare the two executive orders and DOJ letters threatening Minnesota unconstitutional, unlawful, and null and void, and bar their enforcement.
Attorney General Ellison said the following:
Trump’s unconscionable attack on this small number of vulnerable children is bullying, plain and simple. His burning desire to destroy trans kids and punish us for helping them live and thrive isn't just a violation of the law — it’s a violation of Minnesota values. I’ve been around my share of bullies in my life, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you don’t give bullies an inch. We’re not going to cave at the expense of trans kids — or any vulnerable community that needs our compassion and protection.
Sometimes countries face a moment like this — faced with a leader bent on destroying entire communities and instilling fear in those who protect them. The lessons of history tell us a leader like that doesn’t stop at one community — after he’s destroyed one, he goes after another, and another, and another.
These are the moments when you have to say “no” — especially if the community the leader wants to destroy is children just trying to live their lives. We’re in that moment right now in America. I have the power to say “no.” Today, I’m using it.
Attorney General Ellison’s lawsuit, which along with President Trump includes as defendants Attorney General Pam Bondi and the United States Department of Justice, was filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
Trump’s attacks on transgender children and Minnesota’s legal protections
As Attorney General Ellison’s lawsuit states, “President Trump has a long history of rhetoric that reflects animus towards transgender people. He has referred to transgender people as ‘sick,’ falsely claimed that schools are secretly obtaining gender-affirming surgeries for children, speculated that ‘transgender hormone treatments and ideology’ increase the risk of violence, promised to drive out ‘transgender insanity’ from schools, described gender nonconforming people as belonging to a ‘transgender cult,’ and asserted that ‘gender ideology’ is responsible for inflation.”
President Trump has issued several executive orders consistent with that animus, including:
- The “Gender Ideology Order” of January 20, 2025, declaring that it is “the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” which are “not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” In the lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison argues the order is “inconsistent with decades of scientific research and evidence on how human bodies develop” and “denies the existence of transgender people altogether.”
- The “Sports Ban Order” of February 5, 2025, which refers to transgender girls and women as “men” and asserts that allowing transgender girls to compete in women’s sports “is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.” As the lawsuit notes, “the order also directs federal agencies to rescind funding to any educational program — whether it be a K-12 school or a university — that permits transgender girls and women to participate on a sports team for girls and women, regardless of their age, their testosterone levels, or the level of athletic competition.”
On February 20, 2025, in response to a request from the Minnesota State High School League, Attorney General Ellison issued a formal legal opinion that President Trump’s “Sports Ban Order” does not have the force of law and does not preempt protections against discrimination in the Minnesota Constitution or state law, and that complying with the Executive Order would violate the Minnesota Human Rights Act. Under Minnesota law, that opinion is legally binding unless a court of law says otherwise.
On February 25, 2025, Attorney General Bondi claimed in a letter to Attorney General Ellison that “requiring girls to compete against boys in sports and athletic events violates Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972” and said the Department of Justice had begun a “Title IX investigation” of the Minnesota State High School League. Attorney General Bondi put Minnesota “on notice” that the federal government would sue Minnesota or “seek termination of federal funds” if Minnesota did not comply with Trump’s “Sports Ban Order.”
On April 8, 2025, Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon wrote Attorney General Ellison to demand that he “clarify” his February 20 legal opinion and informing him that if he did not, the Trump Administration would have “no choice but to seek judicial resolution.” Dhillon once again threatened to withhold federal funds from Minnesota schools.
On the same day, Dhillon wrote the University of Minnesota, Metropolitan State University, and Saint Paul Public Schools that they are also targets of a “Title IX compliance review investigation” and threatened that if the institutions did not voluntarily comply, “we may take formal action to secure compliance, which could include suspending, terminating, or refusing to grant or continue your federal financial assistance.”
These are not empty threats. On April 16, 2025, when Attorney General Bondi announced Trump’s lawsuit against Maine over its policies allowing some transgender athletes to compete in school sports, she said at a press conference that Minnesota is in the “top two” of states that would be sued next.
Protections for transgender people under Minnesota Human Rights Act and Title IX
Since 1993, the Minnesota Human Rights Act has protected transgender Minnesotans, including transgender children, from discrimination. In that year, an amendment to the MHRA added sexual orientation as a protected status and defined “sexual orientation” to include “having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one’s biological maleness or femaleness” in the definition of “sexual orientation.” This made Minnesota the first state to protect transgender individuals from discrimination. Over the last three decades, Minnesota courts have consistently understood the plain language of the MHRA to protect Minnesotans from differential treatment based on their transgender status, gender identity, and gender expression.
Title IX provides that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Title IX does not define “sex” or “on the basis of sex,” nor does any valid regulation. Contrary to President Trump’s assertions, nothing in Title IX prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams. It also does not prohibit schools from allowing transgender boys and men to participate on boys’ and men’s sports teams.
Until just three months ago, the U.S. Department of Justice took the position that Title IX required schools to allow transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams. In 2021, DOJ and the federal Department of Education announced that the reasoning of the 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bostock, that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment against transgender people, applies to Title IX. A number of federal courts have agreed with this interpretation.
Second Minnesota lawsuit against Trump orders targeting transgender children
Today’s lawsuit is the second Attorney General Ellison has filed on behalf of the State of Minnesota against President Trump and his administration for unlawfully and unconstitutionally weaponizing the federal government against transgender children.
On February 7, 2025, Attorney General Ellison on behalf of the State of Minnesota sued to block another Trump executive order purporting to block federal funding for gender-affirming care and criminalize the provision of it. The lawsuit, in which Attorney General Ellison is joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, alleges that the executive order violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law by singling out transgender individuals for mistreatment and discrimination. It further argues the president cannot unilaterally overrule laws Congress has already passed to authorize research and education funding for medical institutions in Minnesota or any state, and that the president cannot unilaterally regulate or criminalize medical practices in Minnesota, which is a state issue that is protected by the Tenth Amendment.
On February 28, 2025, Attorney General Ellison and the coalition won a preliminary injunction in court that bars the enforcement of the executive order in Minnesota and the plaintiff states for the duration of the litigation.
