This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this regular platform will give readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight, inspiration and connections as we work on taking back our state from the extremists. Please join us every week as we try to Connect, Unite and Act with our community of North Carolina Daily Kos members. You can also join the discussion in five other weekly State Open Threads.
Colorado: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Mountain
Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern
North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern
Washington: Sundays, 3:30 PM Pacific
Missouri: Wednesday Evenings
Kansas: Monday Evenings
Please help us build this weekly NC thread so that it includes anything from North Carolina that you would like us to highlight. Just kosmail me or say hi through email here: randalltdkos at gmail.com. And please follow me on Twitter @randallt
For those in other states, please join us as we strive to establish state open threads in all fifty. Just drop me a line if you are interested in hosting an open thread for your state. Keep in mind you can share the duties with other members in your state and set up a system and schedule for rotating the weekly contribution.
Please follow below the fold. This week comes news from the Justice Department that North Carolina is in violation of the Civil Rights Act. The state has until tomorrow, Monday, May 9th to respond. The stakes are very high here and climbing by the hour.
This is an interesting and easy to digest look at the actual violations of the Civil Rights Act.
Latin Times
In the open letter, the U.S Department of Justice noted that the law was discriminating against all transgender individuals as it did not permit them to use the proper bathroom. It also treats transgender people differently from cisgender people. The only way an employer is really allowed to discriminate, according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is "in a very narrowly defined situations and it is solely on the the basis of a protected trait where the trait is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise." According to the law, there are are three elements that must be proven and even then it is extremely difficult to use discriminatory behavior in the work place.
The magazine does a great job of linking to several sources and gives a clear, up to date analysis.
The Atlantic
DURHAM, N.C.—The U.S. Department of Justice is joining Bruce Springsteen, Paypal, and the NBA in weighing in against North Carolina’s HB2, the controversial law that—among other conditions—mandates that transgender people use the bathroom conforming to the gender on their birth certificate, rather than the one which they associate, in state buildings, and bars cities from enacting ordinances to require transgender-bathroom accommodation.
In a letter to Governor Pat McCrory on Wednesday, the Justice Department said that HB2 violates Titles VII and IX of the Civil Rights Act. In the letter, first reported by The Charlotte Observer, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta notes that Title VII of the law prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of gender, and that courts have interpreted that to include gender identity of transgender people. The letter (via WRAL) states:
In a letter to Governor Pat McCrory on Wednesday, the Justice Department said that HB2 violates Titles VII and IX of the Civil Rights Act. In the letter, first reported by The Charlotte Observer, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta notes that Title VII of the law prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of gender, and that courts have interpreted that to include gender identity of transgender people. The letter (via WRAL) states:
H.B. 2 … is facially discriminatory against transgender employees on the basis of sex because it treats transgender employees, whose gender identity does not match their “biological sex,” as defined by H.B. 2, differently from similarly situated non-transgender employees …
H.B. 2 places similar restrictions on access to restrooms and changing facilities for all public agencies in North Carolina. By requiring compliance with H.B. 2, you and the State are therefore resisting the full enjoyment of Title VII rights and discriminating against transgender employees of public agencies by requiring those public agencies to comply with H.B. 2.
The department demands that McCrory respond by close of business on May 9 that he will remedy the violations, “including by confirming that the State will not comply with or implement H.B. 2.”
While simply violating Title VII would make HB2 illegal under federal law, proving that would require a court decision. The hammer here is Title IX. The federal government provides billions to state schooling systems around the country through the Department of Education. Including universities, North Carolina receives about $4.5 billion, almost $900 million of that to public lower schools. If the state is in violation of Title IX, the Department of Education could shut off the spigot of money for schools, blowing a huge hole in the state education budget.
Another look at the issue from Charlotte, ground zero of this legislation.
WBTV-Charolotte
House Speaker Tim Moore called the Justice Department letter “a huge over-reach (by) the federal government.”
“It looks an awful lot like politics to me,” Moore, a Kings Mountain Republican, told reporters. “I guess President Obama, in his final months in office, has decided to take up this ultra-liberal agenda.”
But opponents of HB2 applauded the Justice Department finding.
“The letter confirms what we’ve already known – that HB2 is deeply discriminatory, violates federal civil rights law, and needs to be repealed as soon as possible,” said Rep. Chris Sgro, a Democrat who is executive director of Equality NC. “We’ve already lost $500 million in economic impact and now we are violating federal civil rights law and risking Title IX funding.”
I received this letter from our friend Gerrick Brenner at Progress NC Action this week. There are links to add your voice.
The U.S. Justice Department ruled that HB2 violates the Civil Rights Act and gave Gov. McCrory until Monday to stop enforcing his discriminatory law. Now the Speaker of the NC House, Tim Moore, and others in the legislature say they’ll ignore the Justice Department deadline.
Failure to comply risks billions of dollars in federal funding for public education. That’s a hit that our schools and our state absolutely cannot afford. We must repeal HB2.
Click here to add your name and urge Gov. McCrory and politicians in Raleigh to repeal HB2 immediately before it deals a crushing blow to our public schools.
Gov. McCrory and his right-wing allies are driving our state off a cliff and they don’t even seem to care. McCrory continues to lie and peddle misinformation, even after he is repeatedly called out by state and national fact-check organizations.
The most recent and bizarre example? McCrory tried to claim that Bruce Springsteen cancelled his Greensboro concert because of poor ticket sales. That’s an absurd lie that earned McCrory a “pants on fire” rating from Politifact NC.
Springsteen cancelled his show for one reason: Gov. McCrory’s hateful and discriminatory law.
Click here to add your name and join the movement to repeal HB2 before it does any more damage to our state.
The other side has only fear and misinformation to support their claims. If we keep fighting for what know is right, we will prevail.
Thank you,
Gerrick Brenner
Executive Director, Progress NC Action
Thanks for reading, North Carolina needs every voice, every vote.