The Justice Department filed a legal brief late Tuesday night asking a federal judge to stop the implementation of North Carolina’s controversial bathroom law.
According to the 70-page brief, “excluding transgender men and women from bathroom and changing facilities consistent with their gender identity causes significant and irreparable physical, psychological, economic, social and stigmatic harm to transgender people.”
The law, House Bill 2, was passed by North Carolina’s legislature in a one-day specially convened session on March 23. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed it into law that same day.
Among other things, it requires transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding with their birth gender rather than gender identity in government facilities.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced in May that Justice would be acting to stop HB2. The DOJ and North Carolina are currently involved in dueling lawsuits on whether the law is discriminatory.
In the new brief, Justice cited a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Virginia that upheld Virginia transgender teen Gavin Grimm’s right to use the boy’s bathroom under Title IX. Justice also argued that the law violates not just Title IX, but the Violence Against Women Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Because of those violations, the DOJ argued HB2 will be likely overturned.
“HB2 is not merely a solution to a nonexistent problem; it is state-sanctioned discrimination that is inflicting immediate and significant harm on transgender individuals. That, along with the balance of equities and the public interest in preventing discrimination, support a preliminary injunction halting compliance with and implementation of HB2,” the Justice argued.
