McCrory calls Justice Department determination that HB2 violates federal law ‘Washington overreach’

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday May 05, 2016 · 8:09 AM PDT

2016/05/05 · 08:09

Congratulations, North Carolina, a mad man is governing your state. Gov. Pat McCrory appears to be angling to go head to head with the federal government over the Department of Justice’s warning letter Wednesday that HB2 is a violation of both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX ~~of the Civil Rights Act of 1964~~. Caitlin MacNeal brings us Pat McCrory jumping the shark Wednesday evening:

McCrory said at an event with business leaders that the letter was "something we’ve never seen regarding Washington overreach in my lifetime," according to the Charlotte Observer.

"This is no longer just a N.C. issue. This impacts every state, every university and almost every employee in the United States of America," he added. "All those will have to comply with new definitions of requirements by the federal government regarding restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities in both the private and public sector."

Now we know just how limited McCrory’s historical reference points are—as if that little clash of wills between the federal government and the states in the ’50s and ‘60s never occurred. Someone may want to let McCrory know how that turned out because we certainly can’t count on the state’s other Republican leaders to mitigate North Carolina’s impending loss of some $861 million in federal school funding.

Thursday, May 5, 2016 · 3:44:23 PM +00:00 · Kerry Eleveld

UPDATE: NC GOP sticks it to DOJ on that Monday deadline...

House Speaker: 'we will take no action by Monday. ' That's USDOJ deadline on HB2 changes. #Chariobs #ncpol
— Jim Morrill (@jimmorrill) May 5, 2016

The Senate President, Phil Berger, went a step further than McCrory, calling it “gross overreach” (exclamation point!). But let’s not forget House Speaker Tim Moore:

“It looks an awful lot like politics to me,” Moore, a Kings Mountain Republican, told reporters. “I guess President Obama, in his final months in office, has decided to take up this ultra-liberal agenda.”

Moore went on to blast Obama in a statement for trying to “circumvent the will of the electorate.” Anyone know which “electorate” he’s talking about? I wasn’t aware that North Carolina voters had weighed in on HB2, but I do believe President Obama was elected twice and he kind of stewards the federal government because that’s how it works. His administration is working off a little-known piece of legislation passed in 1964 in case you missed it.

If Gov. McCrory and GOP lawmakers want to opt out of that federal funding, more power to ‘em. They can call it whatever kind of “overreach” they want, North Carolina residents are the ones who will likely pay the price for their experiment in Civics 101.

(Addendum: Just adding links to the DOJ letters here to Gov. Pat McCrory and also to UNC President Margaret Spellings.)

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