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Superintendent: federal judge limits DOJ subpoena seeking transgender athletes' identifying information
Summary
Superintendent Scallan said a federal judge in the Department of Justice's action restricted a subpoena to publicly available competition records and denied a request for identifying information about transgender students; the district intervened in the case and welcomed the ruling.
Superintendent Scallan told the Portland Board of Public Education on March 31 that a federal judge limited a Department of Justice subpoena seeking records from the Maine Principals Association in a lawsuit about the district's transgender‑athlete policy.
Scallan said the subpoena at one point named Portland students and requested identifying information. After Portland Public Schools intervened, the judge ruled the DOJ did not need or was not entitled to identifying information about transgender students and restricted the subpoena to publicly available competition results (such as who competed and placement), which Scallan described as protecting students' privacy. "The judge ... found that the Department of Justice did not need access ... information concerning students' transgender identity," Scallan said in the meeting.
The superintendent thanked the board for its decision to intervene in the litigation and urged the community to continue supporting students whose safety and privacy are implicated in litigation and public attention.
No new procedural votes were taken on the litigation at the meeting; the superintendent said the district would continue to resist requests for identifiable student information if it is unnecessary to the legal claims.
Next steps: district legal counsel will continue to manage the litigation and report to the board on any new orders or discovery requests that could affect student privacy or district operations.
