Hate Crime Law Kills One Bird with Two Stones

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Tim Lynch, director, Project on Criminal Justicetlynch@cato.org:

The hate crime measure President Obama will sign into law today will be—and should be—challenged in the courts as an unconstitutional overreach of federal power.

In 2000, the Supreme Court struck down the Violence Against Women Act in United States v. Morrison, finding that Congress had overstepped its authority under the Commerce Clause. The new hate crime law will be invalidated for similar reasons.

In the meantime, the law will not prevent any violent crime from happening. Any depraved criminal who is prepared to murder another human being or commit arson is not going to suddenly drop his plan because the president approves new legislation. And hate crimes laws take the government too close to the notion of "thought crimes," because investigators will now have to dig into peoples' lives in order to gather "evidence" to prove the bias element in a court of law. That sort of investigative work is unnecessary because all violent acts are already against the law. This measure is about identity politics, not crime-fighting.

Upcoming Studies