Mathew Staver, founder and chair of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based public interest legal agency that fights for family values and religious freedom, sent a letter Thursday to North Carolina lawmakers notifying them that his organization will stand in the gap for North Carolina and defend its new law — free of charge.
The ACLU has already sued the state on behalf of two transgender people and a lesbian professor.
N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper has refused to defend his state’s law banning transgender men from entering women’s restrooms and locker rooms.
The law was enacted after the city of Charlotte opened women’s public bathrooms to men who believe they are women. The new state law supersedes the Charlotte ordinance declaring it null and void.
Cooper called the law “a national embarrassment” that “will set North Carolina’s economy back if we don’t repeal it.”
“I think the attorney general is a national embarrassment, quite frankly,” Staver told WND. “Does Mr. Cooper really, honestly, want to open up public bathrooms and showers to men and put the privacy of women and young girls at risk? Is that really what he wants?”
The ACLU says the bill discriminates against lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queers or LGBTQ people.
Staver said Cooper’s steadfast refusal to defend the law is unethical and grounds for impeachment.
“This attorney general is elected by the people to defend the laws of North Carolina. He has an obligation to do so, and if he cannot do that for any reason he needs to hire outside counsel or have someone else in his office do the work,” Staver told WND. “But he doesn’t have the option of just not doing his job. This is political maneuvering that has no business among these attorneys general but we’re seeing it more and more. They decide not to do their jobs to defend their states and they put themselves at odds with their client, which in this case is the state of North Carolina, and the state has made its intent very clear in this case.”
RELATED: Read WND’s in-depth report on how one governor, in North Carolina, stood up to corporate and LGBT pressure while another, in Georgia, did not.
Staver said a private attorney could never get away with such blatantly unethical behavior.
“It would be like undermining or refusing to provide representation to your client at the critical moment when they need it,” Staver said. “Any other attorney would be disciplined for such action, for undermining the defense of their own client. I think he is violating his own ethical code governing his actions as an attorney regardless of his position as attorney general and he could also face impeachment for not doing his job.”
In his YouTube video, McCrory described the forces lining up against North Carolina as hypocritical bullies.
“The attorney general is inventing conflict that simply does not exist. When you are a state’s lawyer you are a lawyer first and a politician second,” McCrory said. “Therefore I’d like to encourage the attorney general to reconsider his flawed logic. I am fulfilling my oath of office as governor of North Carolina and we expect him to do the same as the attorney general of North Carolina. As elected officials we don’t get to choose the perfect circumstances that surround the decisions we have to make under very difficult circumstances.
“At the end of the day the General Assembly acted within the provisions of the Constitution and presented me with a bill that, while it may not be perfect, provided protection for a basic expectation of privacy in public restrooms and locker rooms. I signed that bill because if I didn’t on April 1 this year the basic expectation of privacy would be violated.”
Staver said Liberty Counsel was encouraged to see the resolve of the North Carolina Legislature and McCrory in enacting the law but called Cooper’s refusal to defend the law “a disturbing commentary on modern legal ethics.”
“He is clearly putting his political ambitions above the law,” said Staver, whose letter was sent to Speaker of the House Tim Moore and President Pro-Tem Phil Berger, stating:
“Despite his unjustified refusal (which is a disturbing commentary on modern legal ethics, and potentially grounds for impeachment), Liberty Counsel is ready and able to provide that defense, should our assistance be desired.”
The White House also inserted itself this week into the North Carolina political process.
President Obama’s spokesman, Josh Ernst, called the state’s new law “mean spirited.”