US Government won’t withhold federal funds while North Carolina is sued over HB2
The US federal government said on Thursday that it will not withhold federal funding for North Carolina while a lawsuit plays out around its discriminatory laws.
The Justice Department on Monday sued North Carolina over HB2, a law which bans transgender people from using a gender appropriate toilet and rolls back local laws to protect LGBT people against discrimination.
While Obama has said the law “wrong and should be overturned”, his administration on Thursday said it would not withhold federal funds while a review takes place to determine whether funds should be withdrawn from North Carolina in line with the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday: “The administration will not take action to withhold funding while this enforcement process is playing out in the courts.”
The Governor of North Carolina Pat McCrory has said HB2 is a “common sense privacy policy”, and also suggested Congress should review the Civil Rights Act following the action against hist state.
McCrory’s administration countersued on Monday, filing a complaint against the federal government.
He said the Justice Department’s lawsuit against the state was a “baseless and blatant overreach.”
The US Justice Department sued the state of North Carolina on Monday, asking a federal court to rule that the law violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The Department said the state should stop enforcing HB2.
The Attorney General Loretta Lynch also threatened to withhold federal funding to the University of North Carolina system, which could be as much as $4.8 billion.
In response, Governor McCrory filed his own desperate lawsuit against the federal government yesterday.
In it, he named Ms Lynch, the head of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, Vanita Gupta and the Justice Department.
“We’re taking the Obama admin to court,” he wrote.
“They’re bypassing Congress, attempting to rewrite law & policies for the whole country, not just NC.
“Our lawsuit seeks to ensure that NC continues to receive federal funding until the courts clarify federal law & resolve this national issue.”
