After North Carolina Attorney General Ray Cooper, a Democrat, refused to defend his state’s new law that requires transgendered people to use the bathroom of the sex that appears on their birth certificate, a top religious liberty law firm has stepped forward.
In a letter to the leaders of the state’s legislature, Liberty Counsel offered to defend the state at no charge. The Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act was recently signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory, who is being challenged by Cooper in November.
The new law sparked a federal lawsuit from the North Carolina Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal on behalf of transgendered students and staff at various University of North Carolina campuses, as well as a lesbian law professor in the state. The letter emphasized the importance of the state legislature’s role in establishing a uniform rule of law.
“I understand that the rule of law is critical to our survival as a people and a nation, and that the rule of law, and other cultural institutions are under attack,” wrote Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver. “For these reasons, I am offering Liberty Counsel’s resources to the service of the people of North Carolina. Moreover, the North Carolina legislature is and ought to remain the authority over matters of statewide import, such as nondiscrimination law, and should be commended for its swift defense of its citizens’ safety and privacy rights in public facilities.”
He also noted Cooper’s refusal to defend the new law could be grounds for impeachment.
Founded in 1989, Liberty Counsel is a non-profit, constitutional litigation firm with offices in Lynchburg, Va., Orlando, Fla., and Washington, D.C. Staver has personally argued religious liberty cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
