Louis Round Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Photo: Ildar Sagdejev, via Wikimedia).
RALEIGH, N.C. – In court documents filed yesterday, North Carolina and the University of North Carolina system argued that the state’s law banning transgender people from public restrooms matching their gender identity should remain in effect while a legal challenge proceeds in federal court. The law, House Bill 2, also removes legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and others.
[…]
The individuals and ACLU members are represented by the ACLU of North Carolina, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and the law firm of Jenner and Block.
The groups released the following statement today in response to yesterday’s motions:
“After rushing to enact HB2 in a span of hours, the government is now asking the court for six months to study its own law, so it can figure out what to say in its defense, all while transgender people suffer. By arguing that HB2 should remain in effect, Gov. McCrory, legislative leadership, and UNC are continuing to defend a law that specifically targets transgender people who just want to be able to use public facilities safely and securely like everyone else. Every defendant opposes efforts to block HB2’s discriminatory provisions from remaining in effect while this case moves forward. In so doing, all of the defendants are continuing to inflict daily harm on the transgender North Carolinians we represent and to defy federal court rulings that conclude that federal law forbids discrimination against transgender people.”
Via Common Dreams and Metro Weekly.
If I understand the thugs’s “reasoning” correctly, it is “Because there is a very real possibility we got it right and law will stand, we must not suspend it, removing its critical protections.”
That suggests an alternative, “Because there is a very real possibly we got it completely wrong and the law will struck down, we must be jailed, removing the massive problem” (and, also suspending the law).
Blf:
Indeed. This is a terribly pathetic play by McCrory et al. “Oh hey, now that we’re suing, we don’t really understand the legal complexities of the law we passed, so give us the better part of a year to study that, but keep the law in place while we do. We’re good, right?”
It’s incompetency all the way down.
Maybe they should have studied the potential effects of the law beforehand. Assholes.
Ha! As if that’s important!
They don’t actually need to study the law, or its effects. This is just a last ditch effort to keep the law in place for 6 months more.
I still like my idea. President Obama: close Fort Bragg because of the projected cost of policing all the bathrooms, then ask “do you want some more of that?” Commander In Chief can do it with a single swipe of a pen.
Onamission5 @3:
If they had opened the law for public comment, there would have been a lot of opposition to enacting the law from the start. The republicans did not want that. So now, they want to “study” the law and its effects while it is left in place. I agree with you: Assholes!