ST. PAUL, MN. — Today, Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that his office has filed a federal lawsuit to “stop President Donald Trump and his administration from bullying vulnerable children in this state.”
In response to today’s announcement, Senator Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis) released the following statement:
“The Trump administration has repeatedly singled out, attacked, and demonized trans people across the country in an effort to strip them of legal protections and dignity, efforts that are only hurting the wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable members of our community. While we have protections in state law, these federal efforts are serious threats to Minnesota.
Thankfully, we have a powerful champion for equality and justice in Attorney General Keith Ellison. He is standing up for our community against bullies like President Trump, and I strongly support his efforts to nullify the president’s illegal actions attacking trans youth.”
In the lawsuit announced Tuesday, 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.
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