The legal director of ACLU of North Carolina says the organization is ready to fight HB2 in court.

Chris Brook told the INDY on Friday that “we’ll be challenging the LGBT provisions of HB2 in a matter of days, as opposed to weeks. It’s impossible to square this sort of discrimination that the legislature engaged in – with HB2 – with the guarantee of legal protection under the law, for all North Carolinians.”

On Wednesday, Gov. Pat McCrory signed the bill into law after Republican state lawmakers rushed it through in a hasty “Special Session” earlier that day. The ACLU immediately released a statement that “The ACLU, Lambda Legal, and Equality NC are reviewing all options, including litigation.”

As reported Friday in the Herald-Sun, Orange County lawmakers fear that anti-discrimination protections already in place for decades could now be in jeopardy. The Carrboro Board of Aldermen will hold their own “special session” to condemn the law at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“This one’s not going to cost the taxpayers anything, either,” says Alderperson Damon Seils, skewering Republican lawmakers for the $42,000 it cost N.C. taxpayers for the NCGA to convene on Wednesday.”We’re doing it for free.”

Seils said that municipalities across the state are geared up to fight the new law.

“We have already hear from jurisdictions around the state, through the Metropolitan Mayors Coalition and the League of Municipalities about interest in what Carrboro does tomorrow, and whether me might have some model resolution for us to share with them.I expect other municipalities to adopt resolutions similar to what we do tomorrow.”

In terms of coordinated legal action, Seils says we’ll likely see that, too.

“I believe there’s strong interest, at least among Orange County jurisdictions, in being interveners, or otherwise participating in any litigation that happens,” he says. “I’m pretty sure that the resolution we adopt tomorrow — just like our resolution about Senate Bill 2 — will have something to say about our interest in partnering with other jurisdictions in finding remedy in the court.”

Seils’ comments to The INDY were preceded by a statement from Mayor Lydia Lavelle: “We will look

to our court system for remedy, as has been the case throughout history with movements for equality and civil rights.”
Meanwhile, in todays’ News of the Ridiculous, Republican state Sen. Tom Apodaca is taking a cue from likely presidential nominee Donald Drumpf’s “make-Mexico-pay-for-the-wall” theory of governance.

From Charlotte Observer:


State Sen. Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson) has asked his staff to look and see how the General Assembly can charge Charlotte to cover the costs of Wednesday’s special session, including the possibility of withholding the city’s sales tax revenues.

Lawmakers met Wednesday and passed a law invalidating a measure the Charlotte City Council passed last month to allow transgender people to use restrooms corresponding with their gender identity.

“Charlotte brought this all upon themselves,” knowing exactly what they were getting into, Apodaca said.

Charlotte Observer reader Bill Clegg has the perfect response:


Yep.