Justice Dept. drops federal lawsuit over North Carolinas bathroom bill

[jpak]

Source: Washington Post

The Justice Department on Friday said it was dropping a federal lawsuit filed last year against North Carolina over the state’s “bathroom bill,” which restricted the public bathrooms transgender people were allowed to use.

Officials said that they were abandoning the lawsuit because North Carolina lawmakers last month enacted a law repealing the bathroom bill and replacing it with another measure. The new law, however, has prompted intense criticism from the LGBT groups who long opposed the first bill and are vowing to keep fighting the new measure in court despite the Justice Department’s decision to bow out.

The Trump administration announced the decision in a filing Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. This two-sentence filing, a joint notice of dismissal, was submitted by federal officials with the Justice Department as well as attorneys for North Carolina’s Democratic governor, its Republican legislative leaders and the University of North Carolina.

Spokesmen for Gov. Roy Cooper (D), who signed the new bill, and State Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R), who backed it, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. (The North Carolina state government is closed because of the Good Friday holiday.)

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/04/14/justice-dept-drops-federal-lawsuit-over-north-carolinas-bathroom-bill/?utm_term=.cb7dccda110e

[msongs]

1. democratic governor's betrayal of LGBT people is paying off big time nt

[Honeycombe8]

2. They would have to drop it, since the law no longer exists.

If the new law is discriminatory under federal law, they'd have to file a new lawsuit.