NC Stands Ground on Bathroom Law Despite DOJ Threats

The U.S. Justice Department has threatened North Carolina with the loss of billions in education funding unless it changes its new bathroom law by Monday.  
       
But state leaders are showing no signs of backing down.
         
North Carolina's new law requires people to use government bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate.
 
"This bill is simply about protecting the safety, the privacy and the welfare of women and children and citizens in North Carolina," explained John Rustin, president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council.
 
But the Justice Department says the measure violates federal civil rights laws.  It says the state must change it by Monday – or risk being sued. That could mean a loss of millions in education funding.
 
"The Obama administration Justice Department is trying to hold North Carolina hostage, trying to hold students hostage and it's really shameful.  It's a shameful approach," North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest said.
 
The federal Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace and student discrimination based on sex. But different federal agencies now say those protections apply to transgender people.  
 
They contend that North Carolina's new law discriminates because it prevents transgender people from using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
 
"The DOJ coming out this strong reaffirms that this is a discriminatory law the Legislature should not have passed," Sarah Preston, acting executive director for the North Carolina ACLU, said.
 
But state GOP leaders are promising a fight.
 
"We do not believe that they have the legal right to do that," said Republican Sen. Phil Berger, the president pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate. "They are a long ways from being able to do what they claim can be done."
 
The state House speaker says the Department of Justice's threat is an attempt by the Obama administration to push a "radical Left agenda" in his final months in office.
   
The governor says it's a broad overreach of federal authority and that it affects every state, not just North Carolina.