Rather than relent and rescind their hateful, bigoted bathroom bill, originally designated as HB2, the state of North Carolina will instead file suit against the Department of Justice in an attempt to keep their discriminatory law intact.

North Carolina officials said they intend to respond no later  Monday to the U.S. government’s challenge to the controversial law on public restroom access for transgender people, but it remains unclear at this point if the state will defy Washington and face the consequences–mainly the loss of billion in federal funds–to further prove their obstinance.

Last week, the Justice Department informed North Carolina that its law is clearly a civil rights violation. The law, which took effect in March, requires that transgender people use public bathrooms which  correspond to the sex shown on their birth certificate.

Should the state continue with the implementation of HB2, it could be subject to a federal lawsuit.

After North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory and other Republican officials received notice from the federal government last week, they doubled down on their support for the law, alleging that the Justice Department’s conclusion the law discriminates against public employees and university members amounts to government “overreach.”

North Carolina could lose $4.8 billion in federal funding, mostly in the form of educational grants, if it does not repeal HB2, according to an analysis by lawyers at the University of California, Los Angeles Law School.

The Justice Department and Governor McCrory faced off on this same issue last year as part of an amicus briefs in a case involving a similar bathroom bill at Virginia schools. The administration’s position was later upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. That is the exact same court which would hear appeals in any future federal case over the North Carolina law.

In other words, it is only a matter of time before North Carolina is forced to relent and reverse the law, either of their own volition or at the order of a federal court. The question is whether or not McCrory and his cronies want to further destroy their state’s economy and public image in the process.

This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.