This afternoon, after the House voted 84–25 to legislate discrimination in North Carolina, businesses started coming out against the law—even before the Senate passed its own version of the bill.
Red Hat CEO and president Jim Whitehurst, Biogen, and Dow Public Policy all tweeted their opposition to the bills on Wednesday. Whitehurst called it a “clear step backwards,” while Biogen said the General Assembly was attempting to “undermine equality.”
It’s worth noting that other states that have tried to pass similar laws or are actively attempting to do so have been hit roundly in the pocket. Indiana lost twelve conventions and $60 million after passing its Religious Freedom Restoration Act last year—it quickly saw the error of its and repealed part of its the law—while the NFL is working to defeat a similar measure that the Georgia legislature is considering right now. Wal-Mart coming out in opposition to Arkansas’s RFRA last year was followed almost immediately by that state’s governor demanding a neutered version of the bill before he signed it.
Oh, and don’t forget: the state could lose over $4.5 billion dollars in Title IX funding, and considering the Department of Education won a settlement from an Illinois school district last year for this very thing, that seems pretty likely, no matter state senator and attorney general candidate Buck Newton’s crackerjack legal analysis.
Oh well, At least Newton got to make a campaign speech today. What a disgrace.
