Until a final decision is reached in the case, the schools – which have said they are caught between conflicting state and federal mandates – can not enforce the language requiring the bathrooms, showers and other facilities people use must match the gender on their birth certificates, District Judge Thomas Schroeder wrote in an 83-page order issued Friday afternoon.
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U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder dealt a blow to Republican Gov. The case was brought to court against North Carolina Governor Patrick McCrory [official website] and state legislators Phil Berger [official website] and Tim Moore by three plaintiffs who were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website], challenging North Carolina House Bill No. 2 (HB2) [bill, PDF].
UNC law professor Maxine Eichner said she was struck by the fact that the judge – who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush – carefully weighed the plaintiffs’ hardships in the more than 80-page ruling.
“Today, the tightness that I have felt in my chest every day. has eased”.
A federal court issued an injunction Friday against the University of North Carolina, preventing it from enforcing House Bill 2 on the grounds that the legislation likely violates federal Title IX regulations.
Filed against the University of North Carolina, the case is the first to challenge the law passed back in March.
A federal court today granted a request to stop the University of North Carolina from enforcing H.B. In his decision, he wrote that UNC cannot enforce the bathroom-related “biological sex” portions of the legislation against multiple transgender plaintiffs who had sued Governor Pat McCrory and other state officials.
The full trial in the lawsuit against the anti-LGBT law is set to begin on November 14.
Passed earlier this year, HB2 diminishes workplace protections for LGBTI people including blocking local governments from passing anti-discrimination laws.
Much of the legal showdown hinges on whether the DOJ can argue that North Carolina has violated federal law by refusing to accept current, widely held medical standards – that gender identity is separate from biological sex.
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The victory is a partial one, however, as it only applies to the North Carolina university system. “We’re confident that as this case progresses, the plaintiffs will prove that HB2 is illegal, unconstitutional, and should be completely overturned”. In his ruling, the judge said, “No party has indicated that the pre-HB2 legal regime posed a significant privacy or safety threat to anyone in North Carolina, transgender or otherwise”. “It sends a signal to the state and the rest of the country, most of whom are deeply opposed to this that we’re really not going to have this on the books that much longer”, said North Carolina Senator Jeff Jackson.
