The fight over North Carolina’s controversial bathroom bill—which requires people to use only public restrooms that correspond with the gender on their actual birth certificates—will now go to federal court.
Last week, the Department of Justice said that the state must indicate that it will “not comply with or implement” the HB2 law, because it violates anti-discrimination laws. In a letter, the Justice Department specifically cited Title IX and the Civil Rights Acts, both of which have measures prohibiting discrimination based on gender. The letter said, (in part),
Denying such access to transgender individuals, whose gender identity is different from their gender assigned at birth, while affording it to similarly situated non-transgender employees, violates Title VII.
Now, North Carolina is claiming that the DOJ’s requirement to “remedy” the measure is a “blatant overreach,” adding, “Transgender status is not a protected class under Title VII.”
In addition to saying that the bill discriminates against transgender individuals, some critics of the measure say it’s also unenforceable.
For North Carolina, the stakes are high: The state receives billions of dollars in federal education money that it could possibly lose if it is deemed that they are in violation of federal law.