A Christian attorney says the hate crimes legislation that's been introduced in the U.S. House is entirely unnecessary.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) has reintroduced a bill that would expand the federal hate crime statute to include crimes motivated by bias against a person's sexual orientation or gender. The measure has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. It passed the House in 2007, but Democrats failed to garner enough support for Senate approval and faced the threat of a veto by President Bush. Now, their prospects are brighter with a larger majority in both houses of Congress and Barack Obama in the White House. Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs at Liberty Counsel, believes the bill is unnecessary because there is no epidemic of hate crimes being committed against people who self-identify as homosexual or transgendered. Perhaps more problematic, he says, the legislation is constitutionally dubious. "The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees equal protection under the law," he explains. "Hate crimes legislation is a prima fascia violation of the Fourteenth Amendment in that it elevates one class of citizen based upon their chosen sexual behaviors above other people. It creates a two-tiered justice system where there are first-class victims and second-class victims." Because of the current economic crisis in the country, Barber contends the hate crimes bill may be on the backburner for a while in Congress. But he notes that Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have "signed off wholesale" on everything on the homosexual lobby's wish list, which includes the passage of hate crimes legislation.
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