NEWS BRIEF

The federal government and a group of states have each fired fresh salvos in the battle over transgender access to bathrooms, locker rooms, and similar facilities.

Late Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion for preliminary injunctive relief in the Middle District of North Carolina, asking the court to block the implementation and enforcement of Section 1.3 of HB2, the state’s controversial “bathroom bill,” passed in March. While the law does a variety of things, the section in question mandates that transgender people use bathrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate, rather than the gender with which they identify, in public facilities, including state schools and universities.

In May, the Justice Department announced it was suing the state of North Carolina as well as the University of North Carolina System, saying the law violated Title VII and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who grew up in the Old North State, likened the law to Jim Crow and called it “state-sponsored discrimination.” The motion filed Tuesday leans heavily on a decision earlier this spring by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the Department of Education could interpret the Civil Rights Act to include gender identity. The motion also lays out a preview of what the department would likely argue in court, contending that precedent is clearly on their side, and arguing that steps like allowing amended birth certificates do not negate HB2’s discriminatory effect. (Read the full filing below.)