In a written notice to the state’s governor, Pat McCrory, U.S. officials directed North Carolina to confirm that that the new law will not be enforced or risk being sued by the federal government.
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The letter adds that UNC, in saying it will enforce the North Carolina law, also violates other federal statutes, which protect employees and apply to those receiving grants under the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is challenging McCrory in the gubernatorial race, said in a statement, “Enough is enough”.
You can read the full letter by clicking through the slideshow below or by viewing it as a PDF here. 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. “This is a big turning point which may pit states” rights versus the will of the feds in potentially explosive ways – much like the recent fight over the hanging of the confederate flag outside of the capitol building in neighboring SC.
The Justice Department also sent letters to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and University of North Carolina, which Justice officials say has violated federal law by implementing H.B. Critics say it prevents transgender persons from choosing the bathrooms or locker rooms of the gender with which they identify.
It’s another bad day for North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and everyone else willing to die on the hill of the state’s infamous “bathroom bill”.
The Justice Department’s evaluation that it considers the law a violation of the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act and its ban on discrimination based on sex came in a letter from Vanita Gupta, the head of the Civil Rights Division.
The state could lose federal money.
Enacted in March, the North Carolina law limits anti-discrimination protection local laws can offer for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Moore told reporters that the letter was an attempt by the Obama administration to “continue its radical left agenda” in his final months in office.
A letter from the Justice Department gave UNC until the close of business on Monday to tell the agency that the university “has remedied these violations”.
It has not been uncommon during the Obama administration for the Justice Department to weigh in on hot-button civil rights issues. Title IX prohibits similar discrimination against transgender students and school staff. On April 20, 2016, Plaintiff Joaquín Carcaño filed a charge alleging violations of Title VII with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
McCrory and state legislative leaders are deciding what to do in response, but it doesn’t sound like the Republicans’ plans will include canceling the law. He said the state is looking at “possible tweaks here and there” to House Bill 2. The letter demands that the state cease implementation of the law.
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“HB 2…is facially discriminatory against transgender employees on the basis of sex because it treats transgender employees, whose gender identity does not match their biological sex, as defined by HB2, differently from similarly situated non transgender employees…”
