The US Department of Justice on Monday sued North Carolina over the state's controversial transgender bathroom law that restricts the use of public restroom by transgender people.

Calling the North Carolina law "state-sponsored discrimination," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the law, which requires transgender people to use public restrooms matching not the gender they identify with as adults but their gender at birth, served only to "harm innocent Americans."

"This action is about a great deal more than bathrooms," Lynch said here at a press conference. "This is about the dignity and respect that we accord our federal citizens."

The move came hours after local authorities in North Carolina filed their own suit against the Justice Department, arguing that state law was a "commonsense privacy policy" and that the Justice Department's position is "baseless and blatant overreach."

Meanwhile, the White House on Monday weighed in on the escalated clash over the country's transgender rights, calling the North Carolina law "mean-spirited" one.

"It should be evident from the response of the business community that what the North Carolina government has done is inconsistent with the people of North Carolina and the economy of North Carolina," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest here at a daily briefing.

Source: XINHUA