More WTF FUBAR - Slate - Justice Department Withdraws Litigation over North Carolinas HB2, Citing
Fake Repeal"
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2017/04/14/justice_department_withdraws_from_hb2_litigation.html
by Mark Joseph Stern
On Friday, the Department of Justice filed a motion to withdraw from litigation over HB2, North Carolina’s anti-LGBTQ law. Under President Barack Obama, the DOJ had fought HB2 in court, alleging that it violated multiple federal laws; Attorney General Loretta Lynch dramatically announced her agency’s lawsuit in a groundbreaking speech denouncing transphobia. Under President Donald Trump, however, the agency has taken a very different approach to civil rights. Attorney General Jeff Sessions openly opposes trans equality and has sought to reverse Obama-era protections for LGBTQ people. With this maneuver, Sessions handed North Carolina a considerable victory in its continuing attack on its trans residents.
According to Friday’s motion, the Justice Department decided to pull out of this litigation because North Carolina “repealed” HB2. This pretext is laughable. In reality, North Carolina simply swapped out HB2 for an equally cruel law, HB 142. HB2 nullified local LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinances and barred trans people from government bathrooms; HB 142 does largely the same thing, using different words. As I explained in March:
The bill forbids “state agencies, boards, offices, departments, institutions,” and “branches of government,” including public universities, from regulating “access to multiple occupancy restrooms, showers, or changing facilities.” It applies this same rule to “local boards of education,” meaning these boards cannot pass trans-inclusive policies. Instead, local governments, public universities, and school boards would have to wait for permission from the General Assembly to protect trans people. Of course, the heavily gerrymandered, vehemently anti-trans, Republican-dominated legislature will almost certainly never grant this permission.
HB 142 also imposes a moratorium on local LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinances, barring any city from “regulating private employment practices or regulating public accommodations” until December 1, 2020. The General Assembly is free to extend this moratorium at any time.
Because the new law remains so harmful, the ACLU and Lambda Legal have announced that they will amend their lawsuit to challenge its legality. They will also continue to sue for damages inflicted upon their clients by HB2. But the battle will be different now: Courts will no longer hear the Department of Justice explain why these anti-LBTQ laws violate federal civil rights protections. The DOJ’s voice isn’t necessary in litigation like this, but it does lend weight to the plaintiffs’ arguments. It will certainly be missed.
snip - more read it and weep at the link above
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if millions of lives are destroyed.
