JAKE TAPPER (HOST): Professor Butler, opponents of this law like the governor of North Carolina say that it would allow grown men to into go into the ladies' room where they could do who knows what to a little girl. I've asked supporters of the law to give me an example of that and I have not been able to hear of one. Tell me more about this charge from the governor about what this law might allow.
PAUL BUTLER: So it really is a solution to something that was not a problem. There are just not documented instances of people who the governor divisively called “cross-dressers” going into bathrooms trying to harass people. So the court will look and see, well, what is the purpose behind this law, and if it's just animus, if it's just trying to make transgender people feeling less than other people, then guess what, that's unconstitutional. So the Civil Rights Act doesn't say anything specifically about transgendered people. But it does outlaw discrimination based on sex. So the Obama administration's interpretation is that discrimination against transgendered folks is sex discrimination and therefore it violates the federal laws against discrimination.
TAPPER: Professor, before you go, how likely is it that this will end up before the Supreme Court?
BUTLER: You know, it's possible, but interestingly enough, the Fourth Circuit, which is a very conservative federal appellate court, came down on the side of civil rights for transgendered people. So I don't know if they're going to even get a case from a lower court that goes in favor of North Carolina against the Obama administration. The attorney general was right, that history and the law seems to be on the side of the transgender civil rights movement.
