John Dinan, professor of politics and worldwide affairs at Wake Forest University and an expert on state law, can comment on the U.S. Department of Justice’s notice to North Carolina that House Bill 2 (HB2), the state law limiting protections to LGBTQ people, violates federal civil rights laws.
Advertisement
North Carolina’s House Bill 2 blocks cities from enacting LGBT protections and limits the bathroom choices of transgender people in government buildings, including schools.
“Please advise the Department, therefore, no later than close of business on May 9, 2016, whether you will remedy these violations…by confirming that the State will not comply with or implement H.B”.
That also applies to state schools that the department said can not treat transgender students differently by barring them from using a bathroom based on gender identity.
A letter sent out yesterday from the federal Department of Justice aimed to curb the state’s enthusiasm for discrimination by threatening to cut funding in the hundreds of millions to state schools.
Pat McCrory says the Obama administration’s warning means the issue is no longer confined to North Carolina and could affect other states.
Earlier Thursday, North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore said the state would not make the deadline, according to his spokesperson. The letter from the two civil rights organizations come after the Department of Justice notified Margaret Spellings, President of the University of North Carolina University System, Thomas Shanahan, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, and the UNC Board of Governors that by complying with HB2, the University of North Carolina is in direct violation of federal law.
The move enraged civil liberties groups, Democrats and others in the state.
North Carolina is the first USA state to pass a law requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate instead of the gender with which they identify.
The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund has been working with North Carolina faith leaders & LGBTQ advocates in an effort to repeal the anti-LGBTQ law.
The governor’s office has, as yet, to respond to the Justice Department.
The JD also ruled that the law violates Title IX of the Civil Rights Act which forbids discrimination in education based on sex. The state law banned transgender individuals from accessing certain bathrooms.
On Wednesday evening, Mr McCrory, a Republican, issued a statement but did not specifically say what the state will do, the Associated Press said.
Senate leader Phil Berger attacked the decision, saying, “This is a gross overreach by the Obama Justice Department that deserves to be struck down in federal court”.
Dinan can explain the legal claims and arguments that the Department of Justice is making regarding the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Education Department’s interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments in what he describes as “these fluid areas of law”.
Advertisement
After being threatened by the Obama administration, Republican leaders in North Carolina are showing no signs of backing down from their stance on the state’s controversial “bathroom law”. Gov. McCrory and the legislators who forced through HB2 in a single day were warned about these dire consequences, but they ignored the law and the North Carolinians it would harm and passed the bill anyway.
