During the last Democrat debate on MS NBC, which I'm sure everyone watched, Hillary Clinton said that she hopes everyone votes for the new hate crimes bill that would be coming to the Senate floor. Excited that the Senate would have an opportunity to debate the bill and vote on it according to its own merits, I was soon disappointed to learn it was attached to the Defense Appropriations bill that passed 93-0.
Even though Congress refuses to openly debate hate crimes legislation based on its own merits, citizens should. Of course, one could easily argue that hate crimes legislation is a complete contradiction to the principle of equal protection under the law, and should be deemed unconstitutional. It makes no sense that person A can commit a crime on person B and get five years in prison, whereas, person C can commit the exact same crime on person D an get twenty-five years in prison, merely because the thoughts of person A during the crime differed from the thoughts of person C. This legal reasoning doesn't even take into account how problematic it is to prove in a court of law an individuals specific thoughts during a crime.
So while hate crimes legislation may feel good, it very well could be unconstitutional, and without a doubt problematic legally. For these reasons Congress should have the guts to debate the issue in front of the public, rather than sneak it past us.
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