Supreme Court litigator Ted Olson has joined the legal battle to protect LGBT rights in the face of North Carolina’s controversial law that forces transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond with the gender listed on their birth certificates.
In an announcement on Wednesday, civil rights organization Human Rights Campaign said it retained Olson to write an amicus brief on behalf of businesses backing the Justice Department’s lawsuit against the law, House Bill 2.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit, filed last week, alleges the law violates federal civil rights law, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 and the Violence Against Women Act.
Following the national uproar stemming from the law’s passage, several corporations have balked at doing business in the state. PayPal, for example, killed plans to build an operations center in the state, a move the Charlotte Observer said cost the state 400 jobs.
In a statement, Olson, said there is “no doubt” the law is bad for business.
“It demeans business’s customers, it demoralizes their employees, and it contravenes their values of inclusiveness and respect,” Olson said.
Olson has a record of supporting gay rights. He argued Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Supreme Court case that upheld overturning California’s Proposition 8 that banned same-sex marriages.
Gibson Dunn partners Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr. and Matthew D. McGill were part of that litigation and will also help Olson with the amicus brief.
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