For civil rights attorney and former mayor of Chapel Hill Mark Kleinschmidt, the letter sent to governor Pat McCrory by the U.S. Department of Justice makes a statement.

“It really just underscores how ignorant the lawmakers, policymakers are on what it means to be a transgender individual,” he said.

The department sent McCrory a letter Wednesday, saying House Bill 2 violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The letter says that HB2 is “facially discriminatory against transgender employees” by forcing them to use the bathroom that matches their biological sex rather than their gender identity.

“The ability to be able to access things like restrooms is a part of what the DOJ discusses as a necessary term, condition or privilege of employment,” Kleinschmidt said. “It’s just what comes along with having a job, presumably a place where you can use the restroom.”

Governor McCrory has until close of business of May 9, according to the letter, to alert the Department of Justice as to how the state will “remedy these violations” by confirming that the state “will not comply with or implement H.B. 2.”

Kleinschmidt said he assumes McCrory will respond by telling the department he thinks HB2 doesn’t break the law.

If this happens the DOJ’s next move would be to file a complaint in federal court. This complaint would be heard by a three-person panel of judges.

McCrory could also choose to say he will not be enforcing the law, avoiding any legal proceedings with the Department of Justice, but Kleinschmidt jokingly said the governor has a third option.

“They could just confess the whole thing is a symbolic political ploy to drum up the Republican base in order to maintain our veto-proof majority in our state legislature,” he said. “Which is the actual real reason this was passed.”

To hear Mark Kleinschmidt’s full interview with Aaron Keck, see below: