Debates about North Carolina’s bathroom laws, which some see as discriminatory to transgender people, became even more heated when Governor Pat McCrory filed a lawsuit Monday against the Department of Justice.
On Wednesday, the US Justice Department sent a letter to North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory. The LA Times reported that the letter notified him that the state’s House Bill 2, which forces people to use the public bathroom that corresponds to the gender on their birth certificate instead of the gender they now identify with, was unconstitutional and violates the Civil Rights Act.
Some of us thought that the Justice Department’s letter might finally be the end of the “bathroom debate” and allow transgender individuals to use the bathroom they felt most comfortable in. However, McCrory and its Republican state leaders vowed to defy this federal letter, according to the LA Times.
In McCrory’s official complaint, he accused the Department of Justice of “baseless and blatant overreach,” according to The Washington Post. The lawsuit came right before McCrory’s deadline to abandon the law or else violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
We’re taking the Obama admin to court. They’re bypassing Congress, attempting to rewrite law & policies for the whole country, not just NC.
— Pat McCrory (@PatMcCroryNC) May 9, 2016
In the letter from the U.S. Department of Justice, officials explained that the DoJ believed that North Carolina’s law violated Title VII of the 1964 Act by engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination against transgender state employees, according to CNN.
Reuters reported that McCrory’s lawsuit and failure to comply with the Justice Department could cost the state $4.8 billion in funds, mostly from a loss of federal money to North Carolina’s universities. McCrory defended the lawsuit as an extension of the Monday deadline to allow time for a federal court “to clarify federal law.” He hopes the lawsuit will prevent the state from losing federal funds.
“We believe a court rather than a federal agency should tell our state, our nation and employers across the country what the law requires,” said McCrory in a news conference, according to The Washington Post. “Right now, the Obama administration is bypassing Congress by attempting to rewrite the law and set basic restroom policies.”
“I do not agree with their interpretation of federal law,” McCrory continued in the conference Monday. “That is why this morning I have asked a federal court to clarify what the law actually is.”
According to CNN, the bathroom law, or Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, puts a ban on individuals to use public bathrooms that do not match their biological sex. The law also prevents cities from passing any anti-discrimination ordinances to protect gay or transgender people.
The case has legal ramifications not just in North Carolina. The precedent that the “bathroom debate” sets will affect the entire country. People from the more conservative side of the debate have argued that the law protects families using the bathroom, while others say it is just a thinly masked but blatant discrimination against transgender people. Social media, per usual, says it all:
People do realize that a guy can just walk into a bathroom and sexually assault a woman without dressing up as a girl, right? #bathroombill
— Natalie Walsh (@lovenataliee) April 30, 2016
For the first time in my life, I’m proud to be a North Carolina native. McCrory has my support.
— Jillian Roy (@J_Girl50) May 9, 2016
This bathroom bill is as much about bathrooms as water fountains were about drinking water. Aka it’s a legal attempt at bigotry.
— dog train (@kyuofcosmic) April 29, 2016
Thanks to the NC bathroom bill I have to get separate litter boxes for my cats.
— Stephen M (@AmerOrtho) April 30, 2016
As McCrory said, according to CNN, “This is not just a North Carolina issue. This is now a national issue.” Let’s hope that a federal court sees how ridiculous North Carolina is being, and restores both the rights of its cities and transgender citizens.