The U.S. Department of Justice has notified the president of the University of North Carolina system that it is violating federal civil-rights law by following a controversial new state law that has drawn widespread criticism as biased against transgender people.
Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed the measure into law in March. It was enacted in response to an antidiscrimination ordinance in Charlotte, N.C., that extended protections to gay and transgender people. The state measure, known as HB2, bans people from using public restrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex.
The law’s enactment set off a firestorm of controversy, and several private colleges in North Carolina condemned it. The UNC system president, Margaret Spellings, herself said that the law had cast a “chill” over the university, but that UNC would comply with the measure, even though the university did not intend to enforce it beyond informing people about where they could find gender-neutral bathrooms.
In letters made public on Wednesday, the Justice Department told three individuals — Ms. Spellings, Mr. McCrory, and Frank L. Perry, the state’s secretary of public safety — that they were in violation of federal law by complying with HB2.
The letter to Ms. Spellings was posted online by The Charlotte Observer. It stated that even though Ms. Spellings had signaled that the system had no means to enforce HB2, UNC was still sending a message that “transgender individuals may not use facilities that correspond with their gender identity.” That message conflicts with federal law, the letter continued, and as a result the university was “discriminating against transgender individuals on the basis of sex and gender identity.”
The department said UNC must explain whether it had taken steps to bring itself into compliance with federal law by Monday.
In a written statement, Ms. Spellings said the university took the order “seriously,” and would be “conferring with the governor’s office, legislative leaders, and counsel about next steps and will respond to the department by its May 9 deadline.”
