Michigan Republicans aren’t taking kindly to the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s willful defiance of President Donald Trump.

“The Michigan High School Athletic Association (@MHSAA) is doubling down and refusing to comply with @DonaldTrump’s executive order protecting girls’ sports,” state Sen. Lana Theis, R-Brighton, posted to X on Wednesday. “I’m calling on @PamBondi to join me and my Republican colleagues in investigating this and ensuring that women’s sports remain protected.”

The Michigan High School Athletic Association (@MHSAA) is doubling down and refusing to comply with @DonaldTrump’s executive order protecting girls’ sports. This blatant disregard for fairness and the law is unacceptable. I’m calling on @PamBondi to join me and my Republican…

— Senator Lana Theis (@SenLTheis) March 4, 2025

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Bondi was tapped by Trump to serve as the United States’ 87^th attorney general.

Theis is among Republicans in both chambers of the Michigan Legislature who will hold a press conference on Thursday to call on the association to comply with the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order Trump issued Feb. 5.

The press conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. at Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt’s capitol office, according to a media advisory.

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MHSAA spokesman Geoff Kimmerly told Bridge Michigan last month the private nonprofit  that oversees Michigan interscholastic athletics doesn’t plan to change its policy allowing boys in girls’ sports, effectively defying the 47^th POTUS.

“We’re just waiting for the next step I suppose,” Kimmerly said, noting conflicts between the EO and Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which Democrats amended in 2023 to include gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes.

“Obviously there’s a conflict here, and it’s going to have to be worked out one way or another,” he said.

For now, Kimberly said, the MHSAA’s plan is “to continue to go with our policy as is” until there’s “more clarification” on the law.

MHSAA’s current policy allows biologically male transgender girls to participate in girls’ sports, if they secure a waiver.

“When questions arise involving trans girl (male to female) student-athletes, the MHSAA executive director will determine eligibility for MHSAA tournaments on a case-by-case basis after being provided at least 30 days prior” with specific documentation, according to the MHSAA’s 2023-24 handbook.

That documentation includes school records, health records, a physical exam, and other information, such as whether or not students have undergone hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgery.

“There are two girls – transgender girls – that we have given waivers to this school year,” Kimberly told WEMU. “We do not track transgender boys because everybody is allowed to play on boys’ sports teams.”

The NCAA, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and state athletic associations have already complied with Trump’s EO, which states it’s “the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.

“It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth,” it continues.

The NCAA, which regulates 530,000 student athletes at 1,100 colleges and universities across 50 states, argues Trump’s EO “provides a clear, national standard” based on biology.

“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement.

“The updated policy (that bases participation on biological sex) … follows through on the NCAA’s constitutional commitment to deliver intercollegiate athletics competition and to protect, support and enhance the mental and physical health of student-athletes,” he said.

“Men and women are not all biologically the same,” state Rep. Gina Johnson, R-Lake Odessa, told WWMT. “Women need to be in women’s sports and men in men’s sports.”

“This is common sense, this is part of his common sense package to restore fairness, safety and privacy for women,” she said.

The defiance of Trump’s EO isn’t limited to the MHSAA.

At least four of Michigan’s public school districts face federal complaints that allege their policies on gender identity violate civil rights outlined in Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in schools that receive federal funding.

Rochester Community Schools, Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, Hartland Consolidated Schools and Mt. Pleasant Public Schools all “have policies that do not protect the rights of young women in bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams,” Matthew Wilk, attorney and president of Get Kids Back to School, told The Detroit News columnist Kaitlyn Buss.

Wilk filed a complaint against Plymouth-Canton schools last week, and “there are more coming,” he said.

While Trump’s order tasks executive departments and agencies with reviewing federal grants to rescind funds for schools that fail to comply, Michigan Superintendent Michael Rice is advising school leaders to disregard the 47^th POTUS.

Rice argued in a Feb. 13 memo that schools must follow Michigan’s Elliott-Larson Civil Rights Act if it conflicts with federal Title IX law.

“Neither a presidential executive order nor federal regulations, whether related to federal funding or not, can supersede or otherwise set aside our obligation to comply with a validly enacted state anti-discrimination law,” Rice wrote. “State civil rights law remains the law.”

Buss noted the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution suggests otherwise.

“It is high time that districts get back to educating children,” Wilk said. “One way is to make sure that, in accordance with Title IX, girls have the same rights they unquestionably had only a few short years ago.”

In the meantime, Bondi is already working to crack down on state and local policies that seemingly defy Title IX, with investigations ongoing in Maine and five northern Virginia school districts.