The ACLU filed a preliminary injunction to “seek immediate relief for transgender people” on May 16, and today, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder set Monday, August 1st as the date for when he will hear that case.
The ACLU, the ACLU of North Carolina and Lambda Legal released a joint statement applauding the decision. “Every day that House Bill 2 remains on the books, transgender North Carolinians suffer irreparable harm at work, in school, and in other public places, simply because they want to use public facilities safely just like everyone else but this hateful law prevents them from doing so,” the groups said. “We are glad our clients will finally have their day in court, and we hope that this discriminatory law’s days are numbered.”
The preliminary injunction only seeks to immediately stop the anti-trans public facilities part of HB 2; the ACLU’s full lawsuit, filed in March, seeks to also overturn the parts of the law that block local LGBT protections.
Schroeder, who is also a “senior lecturing fellow” at Duke, is the judge assigned to the HB 2 case. He was appointed by George W. Bush in 2007 and is noted as a conservative; in April, he ruled that North Carolina’s controversial voter ID law was constitutional. He also dismissed federal racial profiling charges against Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson back in 2014.
In related news from yesterday, the Gloucester County, Virginia school board, having lost its case at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its case to prevent high schooler Gavin Grim from using the bathroom consistent with his gender identity. Grimm previously won his case at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
You can learn more about HB 2 in the special issue we released yesterday.
