Legal Commentary

ACLU Criticizes Senate Version of Hate Crimes Law

By Jeralyn

The ACLU has now weighed in on the Senate's passage of the Hate Crimes Law. In a nutshell, the ACLU says the House version is okay but the Senate version is not.

the Senate version of the hate crimes bill lacks the strong protections for speech and association included in legislation passed by the House of Representatives in June. The American Civil Liberties Union believes that without the speech and association protections included in the House bill, the Senate hate crimes legislation could have a chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech and membership.

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Unless amended to block evidence of speech and association not specifically related to a crime, the Senate hate crimes amendment could chill constitutionally protected speech and association. An otherwise unremarkable violent crime should not become a federal hate crime simply because the defendant visited the wrong website, belonged to a group espousing bigotry, or subscribed to a magazine promoting discriminatory views, however wrong and repugnant those beliefs may be. We urge Congress to instead adopt the House version of the hate crimes bill, which protects both civil rights and free speech and association.”

While I oppose both, we are going to get one or the other. Let's hope it's the House version.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 17, 2009 (boomark / email).