On Wednesday, the US Department of Justice has warned the North Carolina state government of violating law through approving transgender law.
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“But, when it comes to enforcement actions, those are decisions that are made entirely by attorneys at the Department of Justice”, he said, emphasizing that the White House did not weigh in on the notice that Justice served North Carolina.
The MnSCU ban had caused some athletic coaches to worry that they might not be able to travel to prominent baseball tournaments in North Carolina.
There is no recent precedent for the federal government threatening to withdraw public education funds over a state law, although federal agencies have threatened to exert sanctions on some school districts to change their transgender restroom policies.
In this February 2016 photo, Gov. Pat McCrory greeted presidents from private and public universities throughout the state at the President’s Forum held at Cottrell Hall on the campus of High Point University, in N.C. North Carolina Gov. McCrory signed a new law limiting LGBT protections in his state by overriding local anti-discrimination laws.
“We will take no action by Monday”.
McCrory’s comments differed from those of House Speaker Tim Moore, who said earlier Thursday that the state would not meet that deadline.
The letter says that under HB2, North Carolina is “in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act”. For about 10 years, school systems across the South refused to follow the landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education court order that they desegregate – until the federal government threatened to cut off education funds. “Denying such access to transgender individuals, whose gender identity is different from the gender assigned at birth, while affording it to similarly situated non-transgender employees, violates Title VII”.
In the state Senate, Democratic Senator Jeff Jackson is pushing a bill with fellow Democrats in an attempt to repeal the law, according to the WSJ. Intriguingly, McCorry has acknowledged not considering financial impact of the law either on economy or on federal school funding. Similar demands were required of the state Department of Public Safety because it receives federal domestic violence prevention funds.
“It’s not really in anybody’s interest that North Carolina loses”, Bartlett said.
“To use our children and their educational futures as pawns to advance an agenda that will ultimately open those same children up to exploitation at the hands of sexual predators is by far, the sickest example of the depths the Obama administration will stoop to ‘fundamentally transform our nation, ‘” Lt. Gov. Dan Forest said in a statement after the Justice Department issued its letters.
But the state’s politicians, for their part, said they are exploring their options.
The U.S. Justice Department is calling on Republicans who run the Legislature to reverse the law, and the department wants an answer by the end of business on Monday.
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.
That policy provoked calls by the American Family Association for a Target boycott that drew almost 1.2 million online pledges of support through May 5.
Governor Pat McCrory accuses the White House of interfering in the state.
LGBT activists in North Carolina and across the country have been protesting the discriminatory law.
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“The DOJ should stop bullying North Carolina with falsehoods about what federal law requires”, Fiedorek said.
