Republican and Democratic senators blame each other for the General Assembly’s failure to repeal House Bill 2 in a Wednesday special session that dragged on for roughly 10 hours.

As far as we can tell, they’re both right.

There’s enough fault to go around following the latest fiasco over North Carolina’s infamous bathroom bill. Senators on the left and right couldn’t agree on much, but they joined forces to obstruct a GOP-backed measure that would have taken House Bill 2 off the books.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, introduced legislation to repeal HB2 and set a six-month moratorium on cities and counties passing nondiscrimination ordinances or public accommodation rules like the one HB2 was enacted to invalidate.

When Democrats balked at the cooling-off period, Berger divided the bill into two propositions. The first was an up-or-down vote on HB2’s repeal, and the second was designed to tack on the six-month moratorium.

Sixteen Republicans and 16 Democrats voted against Proposition 1. It failed in a 32-16 vote, leaving lawmakers little choice but to adjourn.

Gov.-elect Roy Cooper and other Democratic leaders equated the cooling-off period to a poison pill. They accused Berger of moving the goalposts after agreeing to repeal HB2 if Charlotte rescinded its ordinance requiring public and private facilities to let transgender people use the restrooms, showers and changing rooms corresponding with their gender identity.

Berger, meanwhile, castigated Cooper for lobbying against a compromise to achieve the goal he long sought — the removal of House Bill 2 from our state’s lawbooks.

While the moratorium may not have been part of the bargain legislative leaders made with Charlotte, Democrats were wrong to dig in their heels. A cooling-off period would have held off a possible repeat of the chain of events that led to the law’s passage in the first place.

North Carolina is a Dillon Rule state, meaning cities derive their power from the legislature. The General Assembly can delegate or withhold authority to pass local ordinances at its sole discretion.

Republican Senate leaders offered a reasonable compromise. The 16 Democrats who voted against Proposition 1 cut off their noses to spite their face.

While Berger demonstrated leadership by sponsoring the repeal bill himself despite his support for HB2, the 16 Republicans who opposed his bill showed the Senate ringmaster couldn’t control his caucus. If an equal amount of GOP lawmakers passed up the deal, their party deserves an equal share of blame.

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest played the antagonist on the right every bit as well as Cooper on the left, releasing fiery public statements slamming the compromise effort.

House Bill 2’s supporters say the law is needed to block men from forcing their way into women’s restrooms, locker rooms and showers. It’s a solution in search of a problem, and its architects have whipped up false fears of sex fiends lurking in shadowy stalls.

Rape, sexual assault, groping and indecent exposure were already against the law. HB2 does nothing to deter violent sexual predators, just as gun-free zones don’t dissuade mass shooters.

As we’ve noted in this space before, HB2 includes no penalties for violators and is more policy statement than law. Transgender people raise fewer eyebrows when they use the bathrooms designated for their expressed gender, as many have done for decades.

There’s no practical way to enforce the bathroom ban, as a law enforcement officer would not have probable cause to demand identification or conduct a search based solely on a hunch that someone’s biological gender might not match his or her outward appearance. Such potty policing would treat the Fourth Amendment like, well, toilet paper.

We long for the common-sense conservative leadership of Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican who rebuffed an HB2-style bill in the Bluegrass State.

“Making government rules for things that don’t even need government rules would be silly,” Bevin said in a Dec. 9 press conference.

Silly indeed.

The Wilson Times

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