North Carolina’s House Bill 2 constitutes discrimination on the basis of sex by requiring transgender individuals to use the bathroom and changing facility that corresponds with their birth certificate rather than their gender identity and should therefore not be implemented across the state.

That was the argument put forward by the United States Department of Justice in a court filing on Tuesday asking the United States District Court in North Carolina’s Middle District to grant a preliminary injunction to stop the law from being implemented.

United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch called HB2 “state-sponsored discrimination” when announcing that the DOJ was suing the state over the legislation in May.

Proponents of the “bathroom bill” have continued to say the law is only intended to protect women and children across the state and have called the bill “common sense” legislation.

The initial bill went beyond the bathroom provision and barred localities across the state from implementing anti-discrimination policies that went beyond the state language. The bill also stopped residents from being able to sue in state court over employment discrimination, instead it would have forced them to the federal court system.

After months of pressure, including from Governor Pat McCrory, that portion of the bill was changed at the last minute of the short legislative session that wrapped up just before the July 4 holiday weekend. The new piece of legislation does not fully restore worker’s rights in North Carolina. Under the previous law, workers had three years to file a claim; that range has now been brought down to one year.

No other portions of HB2 were altered during the session. That could cost the state the 2017 NBA All-Star Game, among the other business investments that have withdrawn from the state over the bill.

The UNC System has maintained that it is caught between complying with state and federal law in this matter and System President Margaret Spellings has said the system campuses will not enforce the law.

There is no timeline for a decision regarding Tuesday’s motion to stop the law from being implemented and enforced statewide.

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