Remember NOW YOU can end up arrested like those Philadelphia Grandmothers who were singing songs & peacefully worshiping & reading their bibles. Anyone can now be arrested for DISCRETELY reading their bibles in their own church, as long as a gay somewhere "feels threatened," or like they're being "persuaded" that they're committing sin, THE DEFINITION READS.
Ignoring threat of Bush veto, House votes to expand hate crimes law
The measure, similar to one in the Senate, would add sexual orientation and gender to the protected categories.
By Jim Abrams, Associated Press
Last update: May 03, 2007 - 8:32 PM
http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1161473.html
WASHINGTON - The House voted 237-180 on Thursday to expand federal hate crime categories to include attacks against gays and people targeted because of gender, acting just hours after the White House threatened a veto.
The legislation, the first major expansion of the law since it was passed in 1968, also would make it easier for federal law enforcement to participate in or assist local prosecutions involving bias-motivated attacks. Similar legislation is moving through the Senate.
"This is an important vote of conscience, of a statement of what America is, a society that understands that we accept differences," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
The vote came after fierce lobbying from opposite sides by civil rights groups, who have been pushing for years for added protections against hate crimes, and social conservatives, who say the bill threatens the right to express moral opposition to homosexuality and singles out groups of citizens for special protection.
Before the vote, the White House issued a statement calling the legislation unnecessary.
"The administration believes that all violent crimes are unacceptable, regardless of the victims, and should be punished firmly," the administration said. The White House contended the bill also raised constitutional concerns, noting that the measure leaves other classes, such as the elderly, the military and police officers, without similar special status.
"Our criminal justice system has been built on the ideal of equal justice for all," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, top Republican on the Judiciary Committee. "Under this bill, justice will no longer be equal, but depend on the race, sex, sexual orientation, disability or status of the victim."
The Minnesota delegation
Minnesota Reps. Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum, Jim Oberstar and Tim Walz voted in favor of the measure; fellow Democrat Collin Peterson voted against it, as did Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann, John Kline and Jim Ramstad.
Hate crimes under current federal law apply to acts of violence against individuals on the basis of race, religion, color, or national origin. Federal prosecutors have jurisdiction only if the victim is engaged in a specific federally protected activity such as attending public school or voting.
The House bill would extend the hate crimes category to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability and give federal authorities greater leeway to participate in hate crime investigations. It would approve $10 million over the next two years to help local law enforcement officials cover the cost of hate crime prosecutions.
"Expanding the circumstances under which certain hate crimes maybe prosecuted ... will permit the federal government to provide assistance to State law enforcement in a wider range of circumstances, and criminalize instances of vicious bias-motivated crimes that presently fall outside the reaches of the Federal criminal laws," according to a report by the House Judiciary Committee.
But Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, warned that the true intent of the bill was "to muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality."It does not impinge on public speech or writing in any way," countered Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., is named for Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who died after he was beaten and tied to a fence in Wyoming in 1998.
Hate crime legislation has previously passed the House or Senate but never made it to the president's desk during the days of the Republican-controlled Congress, despite its support from a number of GOP lawmakers. With Democrats now in control of Congress, the bill appears virtually certain to reach the president's desk.
Bush was under pressure from some of his conservative supporters to veto the measure. "If there was ever a bill which needed to be vetoed, this is it," the Traditional Values Coalition has said.
"Justice should be blind to the personal traits of victims," a number of House Judiciary Committee Republican wrote in a committee report opposing the bill. They have predicted the bill will be struck down as unconstitutional.
The measure, however, was supported by a wide range of groups, from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and attorneys general from half of the states to the ACLU and civil rights groups.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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