The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday that North Carolina’s House Bill 2 violates federal civil rights laws.
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The Justice Department letters cited last month’s federal appellate ruling protecting a Virginia high school student’s right to use bathrooms aligned with his new gender identity, which also applies to North Carolina and other states in the 4th Circuit.
“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”. “Access to sex-segregated restrooms and other workplace facilities consistent with gender identity is a term, condition or privilege of employment”, Gupta wrote.
“Usually, that’s the starting point, usually negotiations ensue, sometimes judicial decisions ensue, but that is a tool that the federal government has”, Dinan said.
Gov. McCrory responded to the letter with a statement of his own saying, as he has throughout the fight, the right to privacy trumps individual rights on this issue.
Washington, D.C.-(ENEWSPF)- The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Equality NC have sent letters to chancellors and presidents of the University of North Carolina and North Carolina Community College systems urging them to reverse implementation of the deeply discriminatory HB2.
“Basic concepts – common sense about privacy and expectations of privacy – are getting thrown out the window by what the Obama administration is trying to do in this”, Moore said. This means that the state could end up losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal school funding. We’ve gotten firm guidance from the Department of Justice that we’re in violation of the federal Civil Rights Act.
The American government has warned North Carolina that its controversial law limiting transgender people’s use of lavatories breaches the US Civil Rights Act.
North Carolina leaders are divided on whether they will respond to Justice Department concerns over an LGBT law that has sparked an national outcry.
The showdown between the state and the Justice Department over House Bill 2 could have serious financial implications at UNC-Charlotte and all across the UNC System.
Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest blasted the Obama administration for putting children at risk, employing arguments that allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity will make it harder to enforce existing laws against sexual predators.
Governor McCrory said he will study what the department has written and will decide on what to do next.
Tim Moore, House Speaker and Republican lawmaker, said in a statement held in Raleigh, “North Carolina will not be bullied”.
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In response, McCrory has said the Obama administration had declared war on states’ rights. “You’re exiled”, he said during an appearance on a radio show.
