North Carolina state House Speaker Tim Moore (R) said Thursday that the legislature will not meet the deadline to respond to the Justice Department’s allegation that the state’s new anti-LGBT bill violates the Civil Rights Act.
“We will take no action by Monday,” he told reporters, according to the Charlotte Observer. “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’s not how this works.”
Moore said that legislators are discussing next steps with their attorneys.
Senate Leader Phill Berger (R) indicated that the legislature would offer some type of response, but he was unclear on what that would entail.
“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,” he said Thursday morning, according to the Charlotte Observer.
The Justice Department on Wednesday sent a letter to the North Carolina government notifying the state that its new anti-LGBT law violates the Civil Rights Act. The DOJ gave the state until Monday to confirm “that the State will not comply with or implement HB2.”
Gov. Pat McCrory (R) on Wednesday decried the letter as “Washington overreach.”
