WINSTON-SALEM, NC – A federal court has scheduled the trial in a legal challenge to North Carolina’s sweeping anti-LGBT law, House Bill 2, to begin on Monday, November 14.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder is holding arguments on Monday, August 1, on a motion for a preliminary injunction that asks the court to stop the enforcement of the provisions of the law that target transgender people for discrimination in single-sex facilities.
During the full trial, the court will also consider challenges to sections of HB2 that prohibit local municipalities from extending nondiscrimination protections to LGBT people.
The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina, Lambda Legal and the law firm of Jenner & Block are challenging the law in federal court on behalf of six LGBT North Carolinians and members of the ACLU of North Carolina.
The ACLU and Lambda Legal lawsuit, Carcaño v. McCrory, was filed days after the law was passed by the North Carolina General Assembly and signed by Governor Pat McCrory. In the lawsuit, the groups argue that through HB 2, North Carolina sends a purposeful message that LGBT people are second-class citizens who are undeserving of the privacy, respect, and protections afforded others in the state. The complaint argues that HB 2 is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment because it discriminates on the basis of sex and sexual orientation and is an invasion of privacy for transgender people. The law also violates Title IX by discriminating against students and school employees on the basis of sex.
