The school districts being sued by the Maine Human Rights Commission over their policy changes related to transgender students have filed motions to dismiss the case.

Over two separate motions, six districts argued the commission’s case isn’t valid, while a seventh said its policies don’t violate state law. The parties will deliver oral arguments at a hearing scheduled for next month.

In response to an executive order from President Donald Trump, several Maine school districts adopted new policies last year in alignment with the federal interpretation of a sex discrimination law. The Trump administration’s position is that school districts that allow transgender students to compete on sports teams or use locker facilities in alignment with their gender identity are violating the 1972 federal civil rights law known as Title IX.

The new policies, however, are in direct defiance of a state law, the Maine Human Rights Act, which since 2021 has allowed students to participate in school activities on the basis of their gender identity.

In November, the Maine Human Rights Commission — the quasi-state agency responsible for enforcing that law — sued five school districts over the issue. Two more were added later.

The seven districts named in the suit are: Maine School Administrative District 70 in Hodgdon, Regional School Unit 24 in Sullivan, RSU 73 in Livermore Falls, the Baileyville School District, the Richmond School Department, MSAD 52 in Turner and East Grand School in Danforth.

Six of the school districts filed a motion to dismiss in March, offering three arguments: that the commission exceeded its authority by filing the lawsuit before conducting an investigation; that its claims can’t be adjudicated because they are abstract and hypothetical, and the policies haven’t caused harm to any specific individuals; and that federal law supersedes state law.

In a March 25 response, the commission called those arguments “erroneous,” said the defendants had misinterpreted the scope of the Maine Human Rights Act, and that an executive order cannot preempt state law.

MSAD 52 in Turner filed its own motion to dismiss in February, arguing its policy changes adhered to both federal law and the state’s Human Rights Act, that its policy, “does not promote the expansive, exclusionary policies” of the other districts, and that it had been wrongly grouped with them.

The commission had not responded to MSAD 52’s separate motion as of Friday.

A hearing before Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy has been scheduled for May 21 in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta.

The lawsuit comes as Maine voters could decide to overturn the provisions of the Human Rights Act that allow transgender students to compete on sports teams aligned with their gender identity.

A citizens initiative on the matter will appear on the November ballot, although it is currently facing a court challenge over signature validity. The Department of the Secretary of State also is accepting public comment on the wording.

The commission’s lawsuit is also playing out at the same time that the Department of Justice is suing the state for its trans athlete policies. In the latest on that case, the federal government was granted access to school sports rosters but denied access to lists of known transgender athletes, which state organizations had fought to keep private.