North Carolina Gov. McCrory signed HB2, barring transgender bathroom access and preempting local nondiscrimination ordinances

On March 23, 2016, in a one-day special session, the North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 2, the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act (Session Law 2016-3), and Gov. Pat McCrory signed it into law that evening, with the ratification stamped at 9:57 p.m. The law required multi-occupancy bathrooms and changing facilities in public schools and public agencies to be designated for use based on the sex stated on a person's birth certificate. It also preempted local governments statewide from enacting or enforcing nondiscrimination ordinances covering employment and public accommodations.

The special session was called as a direct response to a nondiscrimination ordinance the Charlotte City Council had passed weeks earlier extending protections, including bathroom access, to LGBTQ residents; HB2 nullified that ordinance and barred any North Carolina municipality from adopting similar protections in the future. The bill passed the state House 82-26 and the state Senate 32-0, with Senate Democrats walking out rather than vote, and moved from introduction to McCrory's signature within a single day.

Updates

2016-05-09 — DOJ sued North Carolina over HB2 [3]

The U.S. Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against North Carolina, finding HB2's bathroom provision violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX, and the Violence Against Women Act. North Carolina had preemptively sued the DOJ hours earlier seeking a court declaration that HB2 was lawful.

2016-08-26 — Federal judge partly blocked HB2 pending appeal [4]

U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder granted a preliminary injunction in Carcaño v. McCrory barring the University of North Carolina system from enforcing HB2's bathroom provision against the three transgender plaintiffs in the case while the litigation proceeded, declining to block the law more broadly.

2019-07-23 — Federal court approved settlement affirming transgender bathroom access [5]

A federal court approved a consent decree settling Carcaño v. Cooper (the same case, renamed after Gov. Roy Cooper succeeded McCrory), in which North Carolina state officials agreed that no state law could be used to bar, prohibit, or impede transgender people from using public facilities in accordance with their gender identity in buildings under the governor's executive-branch control. Plaintiffs agreed to drop further claims against the state, ending the litigation stemming from HB2 and its replacement law.