On October 25, 2016 NELA joined a coalition of groups led by Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) and the Impact Fund in signing onto an amicus brief in Carcaño v. McCrory, currently pending in U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. This case involves a challenge to a portion of North Carolina’s notorious “HB-2” law that would prevent transgender persons from using public restrooms in line with their gender identity, if that identity does not match the gender on their birth certificate. The plaintiffs in this case sought a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the provision as applied to all transgender persons who reside in or visit North Carolina. The district court, however, chose only to enjoin enforcement of the law against the plaintiffs.
The amicus brief was drafted by NELA member Lindsay Nako and Lynnette Miner (Impact Fund, Berkeley, CA), and the amicus sign-on outreach was coordinated by NELA member Julie Wilensky (Disability Rights California, Oakland, CA), on behalf of BALIF.