RALEIGH, (SGRToday.com) - U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Monday that the federal government is suing North Carolina over House Bill 2, which Lynch says is discrimination codified in law.

She compared the bill -- which requires transgendered individuals to use the bathroom of their physical sex -- to Jim Crow laws of the segregated South.

“This is about the dignity and respect we accord our fellow citizens, and the law we as citizens and a country have enacted to protect them,” Lynch said. “It is about the founding ideals that have led this country, haltingly, but inexorably in the direction of fairness, inclusion, and equality for all Americans.”

Gov. Pat McCrory had earlier in the day notified the Justice Department that he would seek an injunction to say North Carolina's law is not discrimination and is in full compliance with federal law.

“Right now the Obama administration is bypassing the Congress by attempting to rewrite the law, and set basic restroom policies, locker room policies, and even shower policies for public and private employers across the country,” McCrory said.