'Bathroom bill' fight returns to a North Carolina courtroom

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Monday, June 25, 2018
'Bathroom bill' fight returns to a North Carolina courtroom
Transgender plaintiffs who think the compromise that replaced North Carolina's "bathroom bill" is still discriminatory are heading to court.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C -- Transgender plaintiffs who think the compromise that replaced North Carolina's "bathroom bill" is still discriminatory are heading to court.

A federal judge will hear arguments Monday from lawyers representing Republican legislative leaders who say the case should be dismissed because the plaintiffs can't prove the new law is harming them.

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The American Civil Liberties Union New plaintiffs wants to bring in a transgender second-grader who it says is barred from using the girls' restrooms and exposed to hostility at her school.

The replacement law, House Bill 142, was a compromise that eliminated a requirement in HB2 that transgender people use restrooms corresponding to their sex at birth in many public buildings.

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But it also barred local governments from passing any new nondiscrimination laws until the end of 2020.

Some Republican lawmakers praised HB142 as even stronger than the law it replaced, citing the criminal charges that could apply to bathroom choices.