The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block enforcement of North Carolina’s HB2 law and its anti-transgender “bathroom” provision. When state lawmakers passed HB2, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, they “placed North Carolina in direct opposition to federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity.”
“More to the point, they created state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals who simply seek to engage in the most private of functions in a place of safety and security—a right taken for granted by most of us.”
Lynch made the strongly worded statement Monday afternoon, comparing HB2 to Jim Crow laws, and said the agency would “retain the option” to curtail federal funding to North Carolina.
Tierney Sneed has the details on the DOJ suit:
The complaint alleges that provisions in the law that bars transgender people from using bathrooms of public agency aligned with their gender identity violates various civil rights laws.
In particular the Justice Department is focusing on North Carolina state government as an employer and alleges that enforcement of the law discriminates against transgender state employees.
The move came in reaction to Gov. Pat McCrory’s failure to comply with last week’s Department of Justice finding that HB2 violates federal law. McCrory responded Monday morning to the department’s ruling by suing the agency, saying he had not been given proper time to comply with the DOJ’s determination and that the federal government was overstepping its authority.