Stephen Schwartz has a record of working to undermine the rights of LGBTQ people. Schwartz worked to defend North Carolina House Bill 2, a law restricting access to gender appropriate facilities and prohibiting municipalities from protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination. Mr. Schwartz represented the North Carolina legislators intervening in litigation against the governor and subsequently the Department of Justice to ensure a strong defense of the discriminatory bill. He also served as counsel to the Gloucester County School Board defending the school board’s discriminatory restroom policy that segregated transgender students from their peers. Mr. Schwartz argued that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 does not protect students from discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

Schwartz also has a deeply troubling recording on a range of civil rights issues -- from efforts to have the Supreme Court reconsider the Fourth Circuit’s decision to strike down problematic voter ID law, supporting Arizona’s law refusing to provide driver’s licenses to Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients to defending Louisiana against constitutional challenges to multiple state laws restricting access to reproductive care.