North Carolina files lawsuit against Justice Department

North Carolina has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Justice Department to defend House Bill 2, the anti-queer law that bans individuals from using public bathrooms that do not correspond with their biological sex, according to a court document.

It comes as a response to a letter the Justice Department sent last week warning Gov. Pat McCrory that the law is in violation of the Civil Rights Act and giving him until Monday to “remedy the situation.” His remedy is apparently to strike back calling the Justice Department’s position a “radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act” and “a baseless and blatant overreach.”

“This is no longer just a North Carolina issue,” he said in a Fox News interview on Sunday. “This is a basic change of norms that we’ve used for decades throughout the United States of America and the Obama administration is now trying to change that norm — again not just in North Carolina, but they’re ordering this to every company in the United States of America — starting tomorrow I assume, or Tuesday.”

Beyond his support for the bill’s content, McCrory’s argument against the feds is twofold — that the state of North Carolina hasn’t been given enough time to respond and that the federal government is overstepping its authority.

“This unrealistic deadline by the federal government is quite amazing,” he said in his Fox News interview. “It’s the federal government being a bully.”

Former Attorney General Eric Holder disagrees, and said in a 2014 memorandum that transgender discrimination claims are covered under Title VII. The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission also interprets Title VII as forbidding discrimination against transgender people.

Now, the Tar Heel state could be losing millions and millions of dollars of federal funding for universities alone.

Hey McCrory, you are fighting a losing battle. You are embarrassing yourself and your state. Stop immediately.