Aaron Frey AG
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wiki 5 25
Aaron M. Frey (born c. 1978)[1] is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 58th Attorney General of Maine since 2019. He formerly served as a Democratic representative in the Maine House of Representatives.
Early life and career
Frey was born and raised in Dixmont, Maine. He is the son of Michael Frey and Cynthia Bean-Frey.[2] Frey attended Saint Anselm College, where he served as student body president. He graduated from Saint Anselm with a Bachelor's degree in politics, and later received a Juris Doctor degree from Roger Williams University School of Law. He later started a law firm in Bangor. In 2012 he was elected to the Maine House of Representatives. From December 2014 until his resignation, he represented the 124th district, which includes parts of Bangor and Orono.[3]
Maine Attorney General
In December 2018, Democrats in the Maine Legislature chose Frey as their nominee for Maine Attorney General. Upon his nomination, he resigned his house seat to comply with a constitutional provision that prohibits state legislators from being elected to higher offices. He succeeded Janet Mills, who was elected Governor of Maine.[4][5]
Upon taking office, Frey stated that he would consider involving Maine in multi-state lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies.[6] He later joined a lawsuit accusing drug manufacturers of price inflation.[7]
In February 2019, Frey became one of sixteen state attorneys general to join a lawsuit against the Trump administration over President Trump's decision to declare a national emergency. The emergency declaration was made to allow the President to allocate funding for a wall on the United States-Mexico border.[8][9]
In April 2023, Frey announced that he was in a romantic relationship with an employee under his direct supervision in the Attorney General's Office and called it "an error in judgment" to not reassign the employee to a new supervisor.[10] In an email to office staff, Frey identified the employee as an Assistant Attorney General and disclosed that the relationship had begun in August 2022.[11] The revelation was made after the Bangor Daily News began investigating tips about Frey's relationship.[12] After publicly disclosing the relationship, he transferred supervision of the person to chief deputy attorney general Christopher Taub. An independent workplace assessment report found no fault with how the Attorney General's Office handled the situation.[13][14]
He was reelected in 2024.[15]
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susan collins fixed in march?
April 2, 2025
off bs
(WASHINGTON, D.C., April 2, 2025) — Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins fulfilled the promise of Title IX in pausing federal funds for certain Maine educational programs. Secretary Rollins sent a letter (PDF, 612 KB) to Maine Governor Janet Mills announcing the pause and an ongoing review of federal funding that the state of Maine receives from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This comes after Maine’s continual refusal to provide equal opportunity to women and girls in educational programs, in direct violation of Title IX.
“In order to continue to receive taxpayer dollars from USDA, the state of Maine must demonstrate compliance with Title IX which protects female student athletes from having to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males,” Secretary Rollins wrote in the letter.
“In addition, USDA has launched a full review of grants awarded by the Biden Administration to the Maine Department of Education. Many of these grants appear to be wasteful, redundant, or otherwise against the priorities of the Trump Administration. USDA will not stand for the Biden Administration’s bloated bureaucracy and will instead focus on a Department that is farmer-first and without a leftist social agenda,” Secretary Rollins continued.
The effort by USDA supports President Donald J. Trump’s leadership in ensuring that taxpayer dollars are not spent on programs that violate federal law. USDA supports the recent actions of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in enforcing Title IX. USDA will pause and, where appropriate, terminate certain nonessential funding in Maine if these Title IX violations are not resolved to the satisfaction of the Federal Government. This pause does not impact federal feeding programs or direct assistance to citizens; if a child was fed today, they will be fed tomorrow.
Related:
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
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judge orders USDA to restore Maine school meal funding
By Quinn D'Alessio on April 21, 2025
A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must return essential school meal funding to the state of Maine, after the agency froze the money on April 2 in response to Maine’s policy allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports. The decision, issued April 11 by U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock, grants the state a temporary restraining order. That means federal funding will flow again to support school meal programs for thousands of children, as well as food assistance for low-income families, childcare centers and people with disabilities across the state.
The USDA had halted the funding earlier this month on April 2, citing alleged violations of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. The agency claimed Maine’s inclusive sports policy went against that law.
Judge Woodcock then ruled that the USDA didn’t follow proper procedures when it froze the funds: specifically that it gave no formal warning or chance for the state to respond. The judge however did not rule on whether Maine’s policy is legal under Title IX, only that the USDA couldn’t skip due process.
Funding may be temporarily safe, but at the core of this conflict is a battle over how Title IX applies to transgender students.
Under the Biden Administration, Title IX guidance was expanded to include gender identity as a protected category. But after the 2024 election, the USDA — now operating under the Trump Administration — has shifted back toward a narrower definition of sex as biological sex assigned at birth. Maine’s policy, which allows students to participate in school sports according to their gender identity, directly conflicts with this new stance.
The USDA’s decision to freeze funding was one of the first major actions taken under this rollback. Maine was given a clear message: change your policy or lose your funding.
In response, Attorney General Aaron Frey sued the federal government, saying the USDA’s actions were politically motivated and dangerously punitive. Governor Janet Mills has also stood firm, arguing that Maine’s policy reflects the state’s commitment to fairness and inclusion — and that it’s legally sound.
To better understand what this case means for students, The Maine Campus met with Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine. Brewer emphasized that this decision is an early one, and that the situation could change quickly.
“What happens after the temporary restraining order expires? That depends on what happens at the next administrative and/or judicial steps. There are so many different possible outcomes that it really is difficult to answer this question,” said Brewer.
Even though the court ordered the USDA to restore funding for now, Brewer said the broader legal battle over Title IX and transgender rights is just beginning.
“This is a very early step in what will almost certainly be a very long process to determine first the interpretation and eventually the enforcement of Title IX in terms of gender identity,” he said.
So far, Maine leaders have given no sign that they’ll back off their current policies. Brewer said that’s unlikely to change unless the U.S. Supreme Court forces the issue. He was then asked if Maine is likely to adjust any policies to avoid future conflict with the federal government.
“Likely not at this point,” said Brewer. “If the U.S. Supreme Court tells Maine it has to do so, this would be a different story.”
While the lawsuit plays out in the courts, public support could influence how state and federal leaders respond. If students are concerned about the potential loss of funding or want to support policies that protect LGBTQ+ rights, Brewer says speaking up is important.
“Students should contact their Members of Congress to advocate that funding be protected,” he said.
The funding freeze, even if temporary, raised serious concerns across Maine. Without that federal funding, school nutrition programs might have had to cut back or shut down, leaving many students and families without regular access to meals. Now that the funding is restored those fears have eased, at least temporarily.
“The one thing students can likely be sure of is continued conflict and uncertainty,” said Brewer.
Published in Campus & Community News, News, On Campus and Politics
More posts from Quinn D'Alessio
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gmail cci
News & Analysis
November 26, 2024
Maine is suing major oil companies and their top trade association for lying about the dangers of fossil fuels and driving the climate crisis that is now battering the coastal state. The lawsuit marks the 9th state to take fossil fuel companies to court over their decades of climate deception.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s lawsuit accuses Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP, Sunoco, and the American Petroleum Institute for “failing to warn Mainers and concealing their knowledge about the devastating consequences of the increasing use of fossil fuels on Maine’s people, economy, and environment.”
“For over half a century, these companies chose to fuel profits instead of following their science to prevent what are now likely irreversible, catastrophic climate effects,” said Attorney General Frey, who joined 10 other attorneys general taking Big Oil to court. “In so doing, they burdened the State and our citizens with the consequences of their greed and deception.”
Maine Governor Janet Mills gave her support to the lawsuit, pointing to the toll that extreme weather is taking on the state’s residents and economy. “For decades, big oil companies have made record profits, taking billions out of the pockets of Maine people while deliberately deceiving them about the harmful impacts of fossil fuels – impacts that Maine people see and feel every day,” she said.
Maine is asking for a jury trial in state court. Its lawsuit seeks to make the Big Oil defendants pay for climate damages, stop engaging in deceptive practices, and give up the profits that they illegally obtained while lying to consumers about the dangers of their products.
“With Maine’s lawsuit, the demands that Big Oil faces accountability for decades of climate lies are growing louder and more powerful,” said CCI President Richard Wiles.
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