NORTH CAROLINA: Justice Department Drops Lawsuit Challenging HB2, Civil Rights Groups Condemn Move

Via press release from the ACLU:

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina, and Lambda Legal today condemned the decision by the Department of Justice to dismiss its lawsuit challenging House Bill 2, the discriminatory North Carolina law that banned many transgender people from restrooms and other public facilities matching their gender. The law also prohibited local municipalities from extending nondiscrimination protections to LGBT people.

The Department of Justice cited the passage on March 30 of House Bill 142 — a purported “repeal” of HB 2 that in fact left many of the harms caused by HB 2 in place — as the reason for its withdrawal.

“The Trump administration may want to use the fake repeal of HB 2 as an excuse to further turn their backs on the transgender community, but the rest of us aren’t going to give up that easily,” said James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s LGBT Project. “We’ll continue this fight as long as it takes to truly strike down this disastrous law for good.”

In the nearly three months since taking office, President Trump and his administration have, among other anti-transgender steps, rescinded guidance from the Obama administration on the treatment of transgender students, rescinded President Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, and declined to appeal the preliminary injunction issued in Franciscan Alliance v. Burwell against enforcement of protections for transition-related health care in the Affordable Care Act’s regulations.