McCrory: DOJ Letter On HB2 Is ‘Washington Overreach’

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory make remarks concerning House Bill 2 while speaking during a government affairs conference in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, May 4, 2016. A North Carolina law limiting protections to LGBT p... North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory make remarks concerning House Bill 2 while speaking during a government affairs conference in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday, May 4, 2016. A North Carolina law limiting protections to LGBT people violates federal civil rights laws and can't be enforced, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday, putting the state on notice that it is in danger of being sued and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) on Wednesday night balked at a letter from the Justice Department informing the state that its new anti-LGBT law violates the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

McCrory said at an event with business leaders that the letter was “something we’ve never seen regarding Washington overreach in my lifetime,” according to the Charlotte Observer.

“This is no longer just a N.C. issue. This impacts every state, every university and almost every employee in the United States of America,” he added. “All those will have to comply with new definitions of requirements by the federal government regarding restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities in both the private and public sector.”

In a Wednesday statement, McCrory said that the governor’s office will review the Justice Department’s letter — the federal government gave North Carolina until Monday to respond.

“The Obama administration has not only staked out its position for North Carolina, but for all states, universities and most employers in the U.S.,” he said in the statement. “The right and expectation of privacy in one of the most private areas of our personal lives is now in jeopardy. We will be reviewing to determine the next steps.”

Republican leaders in the state legislature also blasted the Obama administration for “overreach.”

“It looks an awful lot like politics to me,” House Speaker Tim Moore (R) told reporters, according to the Charlotte Observer. “I guess President Obama, in his final months in office, has decided to take up this ultra-liberal agenda.”

In a Wednesday statement, Moore slammed Obama for trying to “circumvent the will of the electorate and instead unilaterally exert its extreme agenda on the people directly through executive orders, radical interpretations of well-settled common-sense laws and through the federal court system.”

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R) said that the federal government is using “our children and their educational futures as pawns to advance an agenda that will ultimately open those same children up to exploitation at the hands of sexual predators,” according to the Charlotte Observer.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. It’s fairly interesting to spectate on the desperate knee-jerk reactions this guy is having to his total screw up of signing that law. Other GOP Governors have reacted better to similar screw ups. Usually by vetoing or totally defanging similar garbage. Some are just as bad though…

    However, this guy’s basically completely flipped his lid. He’s kicking and screaming the entire way. It’s kind of like watching the Hindenburg catch a fire and later go up in flames and crash, all of it happening in very slow motion. Even while everyone realizes that they actually had freaking fire extinguishers handy everywhere (repealing the freaking law!!).

    Anyone know what the status of his re-election bid (what pushed him to sign this idiocy in the first place) is?

  2. McCrory signed a law he never read. He never thought about the consequences of signing it. He keeps misrepresenting the law. He thinks it’s about bathrooms.

  3. The DOJ letter is the best thing that can happen to this stupid, bigoted Governor and the unfortunate citizens of NC. The legislation goes down the tubes (as it should), and businesses, performers, and tourists will return to NC. And the Governor can “blame” all of this on DC liberals.

  4. Right now…

    RCP has Cooper (the fairly popular D Attorney General for my state) at +2.3 over Mcrory.

  5. “The right and expectation of privacy in one of the most private areas of our personal lives is now in jeopardy. We will be reviewing to determine the next steps.”

    It’s not all that private if the person in the stall right next to me is dropping a big, smelly steamer.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

35 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for fgs Avatar for jcs Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for kwoodgr Avatar for sysprog Avatar for ncsteve Avatar for austinite Avatar for headhunter212 Avatar for clemmers Avatar for jimtoday Avatar for quitty Avatar for paraprof Avatar for taters Avatar for maxaroo Avatar for blugrass Avatar for dickweed Avatar for khaaannn Avatar for fiftygigs Avatar for pshah Avatar for jolarasa Avatar for pandastirfry Avatar for antisachetdethe Avatar for fein

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: