N.C. Chamber Seems Complicit With HB2’s Passage


Many across North Carolina had wondered why the N.C. Chamber, the largest business lobby group in the state, had not released a statement on the controversial HB2 law. Even after numerous economic losses to the state, the Chamber remained silent.

Now, months after HB2’s passage, N.C. Chamber CEO Lew Ebert put out a letter detailing the Chamber’s ideas for the law. The letter seems to confirm the idea that the Chamber knew the law was coming.

During an interview with Time Warner Cable News, Lew said that he does not believe that the law will be repealed. He also said that the business climate is making “quantum leaps.”

The mounting economic damage of HB2 seems to indicate those leaps are in the wrong direction.

The revisions proposed by the Chamber are seen as nothing more than lip service. For example, the Chamber supports restoring the right to sue for discrimination in state courts.

Unfortunately, they also say the state Department of Labor should be able to review each case. the North Carolina Labor Commissioner, Cherie Berry, has been roundly criticized for being against workers.

Each of the N.C. Chamber’s proposed revisions would make it tougher for workers in the state. Their recommendations would do nothing to help bring businesses back to North Carolina.

Most notably, the N.C. Chamber’s response to the law makes no note of the bathroom provision of the bill. This provision is what caused the businesses to flee in the first place.

The U.S. Department of Justice alerted the state that the bill violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX. It gave the state a week to indicate whether or not it would adhere to the law.


Gov. McCrory decided to sue the Department of Justice in response. Of course, the Justice Department announced a lawsuit of their own as well. This matter will be solved one way or another.

Watch United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a North Carolina native, speak about the discriminatory law below.

Featured image from Time Warner Cable’s News interview with Lew Ebert.