The Obama Social Justice™ Department is trying to intimidate North Carolina’s lawmakers with a blitzkrieg of force. Last week, Justice told the state it would pull the state’s federal education funding over the new law mandating people use the bathrooms corresponding to their gender at birth. The feds gave North Carolina three business days to respond. On Monday — the day of the deadline — North Carolina filed suit. “The [Justice] Department’s position is a baseless and blatant overreach,” the suit contends. “This is an attempt to unilaterally rewrite long-established federal civil-rights laws in a manner that is wholly inconsistent with the intent of Congress and disregards decades of statutory interpretation by the Courts.”

In reply, the Justice Department filed a suit alleging North Carolina violated the Civil Rights Act. “This is about the dignity and respect we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we, as a people and as a country, have enacted to protect them,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch in a press conference announcing the government’s suit. She also directly addressed the roughly 0.3% of Americans who identify as transgender, saying, “We will do everything we can to protect you going forward.” The Obama administration is trying to change the rules on transgenderism just as it changed the definition of marriage — not decided by the will of the people or their elected representatives, but by regulation and the courts. Indeed, the issue will eventually go up to the Supreme Court, illustrating the need for a justice who respects the Constitution to take Antonin Scalia’s seat.