Department Of Justice Asks For Block Of House Bill 2

The U.S. Justice Department is asking a federal judge to stop North Carolina from implementing House Bill 2. That's the controversial law that limits protections for gay and transgender people. 

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in May that the department would try to block the provision of the law that dictates which bathroom a transgender person must use. She said then that the law amounts to state-sponsored discrimination.

Now the department says the law shouldn't be implemented because it's likely to be overturned. That's based on a recent ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with a transgender student over bathroom access in Virginia.

The legislature has been tinkering with the bill this session but has only made minor changes. It scrapped a part of the law that would have prevented people from suing in state court for employment discrimination claims.

The bathroom provision was not changed.