US Justice Department asks judge to block transgender law

RALEIGH, N.C. – The U. S. Justice Department has asked a federal judge to halt implementation of a North Carolina law requiring people to use the bathroom of the gender on their birth certificate.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in May the department would try to block the provision of the law.

A filing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in North Carolina says the Justice Department is likely to be successful in getting the law overturned based on a recent ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals involving a transgender student’s bathroom access in Virginia.

North Carolina lawmakers made only minor changes in the law last week, allowing people to sue in state courts if they believe they have faced employment discrimination. The bathroom provision was not changed.