The U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, announced legal action against Maine on Wednesday, escalating President Donald Trump’s conflict with Maine over its refusal to ban transgender sportsmen from women’s and girls’ sports.

The lawsuit was filed five days after Trump’s administration attempted to cut all federal funding for Maine’s public schools and school lunch program due to the issue. This followed a meeting between Trump and a group of U.S. Governors on February 21, where he clashed with Maine’s Democratic Governor, Janet Mills.

Trump warned that he would withhold funding if Maine refused to follow an executive order he signed, which barred transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.

Mills responded to his threat by saying: “We will follow the law, Sir. We’ll be seeing you in court.”

Trump was vocal about his opposition to transgender athletes during the election campaign. Supporters of his executive order say that it restores fairness. Critics say that the directive violates the rights of an extremely small minority of athletes.

In January, NCAA President Charlie Baker stated that out of 510,000 athletes at the collegiate level, fewer than 10 identify themselves as transgender.

Maine was notified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on April 2 that funding for school lunches would be frozen due to violations of Title IX, which provides legal protections against discrimination based on gender.

After Maine sued the federal Government, a U.S. District Court Judge temporarily blocked the USDA’s ability to cut off funds. On April 2, the Department of Education announced that it would be cutting off $250 million of K-12 public education funding for Maine as part of a disciplinary proceeding.

The Department of Education said that it would also refer the matter to the Justice Department in order to take possible enforcement actions under Title IX.

Sarah Forster (assistant attorney general of Maine) informed the Department of Education on April 11 that Maine would not sign any proposed draft resolutions or revisions.

She wrote: “Nothing in Title IX, or its implementation regulations, prohibits schools from allowing girls and transgender women to join girls’ and women’s sports teams.” “Your letters so far have not cited a single case which supports this.”