North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore said legislators will not rebuke or reverse House Bill 2, even after the Justice of Department gave the state a Monday deadline for doing so.
“We will take no action by Monday,” the Republican told reporters Thursday, according to reports. “That deadline will come and go. We don’t ever want to lose any money, but we’re not going to get bullied by the Obama administration to take action prior to Monday’s date. That’s not how this works.”
The DOJ sent a letter to North Carolina legislators Wednesday saying House Bill 2 — aka HB2 — violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act and Title IX, and demanding that the state rebuke or reverse it by Monday. The law, signed by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory last month, prevents localities in the state from allowing transgender people to use the restroom of their choice.
According to Vanita Gupta, principal deputy assistant attorney general, a violation of the Civil Rights Act and Title IX puts billions in federal education funding in jeopardy.
Moore said state leaders are still working on what to do next.
“Right now we’re talking with our attorneys to see what our options are. We’re going to move at the speed that we’re going to move at to look at what our options are,” he said Thursday.
The Christian Action League of North Carolina strongly backed HB2 as it was going through legislature, and called on a resistance to the Justice Department.
“At the hands of his henchmen in the U.S. Department of Justice, King Obama has delivered his message of intimidation to the state of North Carolina,” executive director Mark Creech wrote on Facebook. “The Great Pontiff of Political Correctness holds the educational futures of our state’s children hostage, while dangling the money bags of federal funds over their heads, demanding in exchange North Carolina bow to the madness of obliterating male and female distinctives.”
