North Carolina Republican leaders on
Thursday criticized a Justice Department determination that a state
law is in violation of the Civil Rights Act.
The federal agency said in a letter to
Republican Governor Pat McCrory that a provision of House Bill 2
which limits the bathroom choices of transgender people in government
buildings, including schools, violates Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act and gave state officials until Monday to confirm that they “will
not comply with or implement HB2.”
(Related: Justice
Department says North Carolina's anti-gay law violates Civil Rights
Act.)
House Speaker Tim Moore said Thursday
that the state won't meet the deadline.
“We will take no action by Monday,”
Moore
told reporters. “That deadline will come and go. We don't
ever want to lose any money, but we're not going to get bullied by
the Obama administration to take action prior to Monday's date. That
is not how this works.”
Senate leader Phil Berger said
legislators will respond by Monday: “Obviously, there'll have to be
some response – you've got the deadline – but I don't see the
legislature, as the legislature, taking any specific response.”
Berger added that he does not think
that the Justice Department has the legal authority to stop
implementation of the law and criticized the federal government for
pushing “radical social engineering.”