The Latest: Top lawmaker: N. Carolina law will stay in place

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Latest on a law that limits protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

The leader of North Carolina’s state senate says he doesn’t see the need to amend a law that limits protections for the LGBT community during the upcoming session.

Sen. Phil Berger said at a news conference Wednesday that he would listen to a proposal from Gov. Pat McCrory seeking to allow people to use state law to sue over workplace discrimination. The session starts on Monday.

But Berger also said: “I don’t know that I would at any point be ready to say we are going to make any changes. I just don’t see the need for it.”

Both Berger and McCrory are Republican.

Berger also said that a federal court appeals court ruling that threatens a key measure of the law is “troubling,” but he argues it’s not the final word.

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4:30 a.m.

A federal appeals court ruling on transgender bathroom access in public schools threatens a key provision of a North Carolina law limiting protections for the LGBT community. The decision prompted swift condemnation from the state’s Republican leaders.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond sided Tuesday with a transgender teen’s arguments that a Virginia school board violated Title IX by forbidding him from using the boys’ restroom. The appeals court’s interpretation of the federal education law directly affects North Carolina.

Maxine Eichner is a University of North Carolina law professor who’s an expert on sexual orientation and the law. She says the court’s ruling imperils a provision of the North Carolina law that requires transgender students in public schools and universities to use bathrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate.