The University of North Carolina system was caught in a flurry of legal activity on Monday as the federal government continued its push against a contentious state law banning transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, while the state filed its own lawsuit in return.
The U.S. Department of Justice said last week that the university’s decision to comply with the law, known as HB2, was a violation of federal civil-rights statutes, and gave state and UNC officials a Monday deadline to respond. Pat McCrory, North Carolina’s governor, responded by suing the department and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, asking a federal judge to declare that the law isn’t discriminatory.
The lawsuit did not include the university system as a plaintiff. The state’s House and Senate leaders, both Republicans, also filed a separate lawsuit against the department.
Several hours later, the department countered with its own lawsuit against the state, listing the university system among the defendants.
If the university system is found in violation of federal civil-rights laws, it could theoretically be stripped of student aid and other federal funding worth more than $2 billion, by some estimates.
Margaret Spellings, the UNC system’s president, did issue a formal response to federal officials and their allegations of civil-rights violations on Monday. “We believe that the university has at all times acted in compliance with federal law, and the university intends to continue to comply in the future,” Ms. Spellings wrote.
She implored the department to recognize the “difficult position” that the UNC system is in, with state and federal laws in conflict. “The act remains the law of the state, however, and the university has no independent power to change that legal reality,” she wrote.
UNC officials have been in regular contact with the department over the past few weeks “about ways to constructively resolve its inquiry into HB2 and the university’s compliance with federal civil-rights laws,” Ms. Spellings said in a written statement. She added that she and others would continue discussions with federal officials despite the department’s lawsuit. The system’s Board of Governors will meet on Tuesday in a special session to review the lawsuit.
Last month Ms. Spellings said the bathroom law had sent “a chill” through the university and stressed that following the statute “is in no way an endorsement” of it.
Ms. Lynch said during a news conference on Monday that federal officials “remain open to discussions in the state” and that it would be premature to speculate on when North Carolina could lose federal funding.
