Unnecessary and Inappropriate Constitutional Conflict in North Carolina

On May 4, 2016, a deputy assistant attorney general of the United States mailed a demand letter to the governor of North Carolina instructing him to “not comply with or implement” North Carolina law. This letter represents the Obama Administration’s official declaration that North Carolina is the new frontline in the post-Obergefell battle for LBGT exceptionalism.

Cloaked in an incomplete and misleading civil rights narrative (leading the average person to believe that Jim Crow is back in North Carolina), the United States Department of Justice is taking very aggressive action to advance its pro-LGBT ideology. On Monday, the United States attorney general sued North Carolina (and several other officials and institutions) in an effort to open all public restrooms, locker rooms, dorm rooms, prisons, university athletic teams, etc., to all individuals without regard to their biological sex. The federal government contends that North Carolina’s recently enacted Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act (commonly known as H.B.2) violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments adopted in 1972, and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013.

Recognizing his duty to enforce North Carolina law, and the importance of the policies and constitutional issues involved, the governor of North Carolina sued the United States. In his complaint, Governor McCrory contends that the Department of Justice’s demands are a “baseless and blatant overreach” of federal executive power.

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