Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Learned Foote- Talk Radio News Service

Attorney General Eric Holder urged Congress Thursday to pass the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, a bill that would expand the authority of the federal government to prosecute hate crimes, and include “gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability” in the protected classes.

“Perpetrators of hate crimes seek to deny the humanity that we all share, regardless of the color of our skin, the God to whom we pray, or the person who we choose to love,” said Holder during testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee

Holder noted that a similar bill reached Congress in 1998, but has never passed. “The legislation has been stalled far too long, and it’s time to act,” said committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

The bill is named after Matthew Shepard, a gay man from Wyoming who was brutally killed in 1998.

Several senators asked whether the legislation would violate the First Amendment, which protects free speech. Holder said that only crimes involving “bodily injury” fall under the scope of this legislation, and even the incitement of violence would not be prosecuted under the bill.

“We’re looking at people who actually commit physical acts of violence,” said Holder. “However deplorable ... speech with which I would vehemently disagree [is] not cognizable under the statute.”

Republican Senators repeatedly criticized Holder for not providing statistics or documenting a trend indicating that state and local authorities do not sufficiently address these crimes. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) noted that the Shepard murder was a “crime that should have been vigorously prosecuted, and it was.”

Holder responded that “what we’re looking for is an ability in those instances, those rare instances, where there is an inability or unwillingness by state or local jurisdiction to proceed, that the federal government...would be able to fill that gap.”

Sessions also expressed concern about “how [the U.S. is] picking and choosing the people who receive the extra protection” afforded by hate crime legislation. Holder replied that such laws should “protect groups of people who are ... the subjects of violence simply because of who they are.”