NORTH CAROLINA: Both Chambers Recess For Lunch With No Repeal Bill Filed For Anti-LGBT Hate Law

But we still may see some action very shortly. Here’s how things got started this morning:



The session began with a packed House gallery and attempts by some Republican lawmakers to short-circuit it. Rep. Jeff Collins of Nash County rose to declare the session unconstitutional and decried the “extraordinary hubris” of Charlotte City Council in prompting it. Two other members joined him.

Rep. Michael Speciale of New Bern moved that the session be immediately adjourned. He was ruled out of order. Sen. Tommy Tucker, a Republican from Waxhaw, filed a resolution to adjourn the session. At 10:55 a.m., the House went into recess until 11:45 a.m. without taking up HB2. House Republicans gathered in caucus. A growing group of protesters gathered outside the chamber.

Charlotte’s council set the fifth special session of the year in motion on Monday with the surprise repeal of a February ordinance that lets transgender people use the public bathroom of the gender with which they identify. The city council, meeting early Wednesday, voted 7-2 to redo its Monday vote following reports that some legislators were unwilling to vote for a repeal of HB2 because the council did not repeal the entirety of its ordinance.

City officials insisted that Monday’s action had removed all provisions that legislators had objected to. “The City Council acted in good faith to do everything that it understood was necessary to facilitate the repeal of HB2,” the city said in a statement after the vote. But Wednesday’s vote fully repealed the changes made in the February ordinance.