Floor Statements
May 3, 2007
Media Contact: Ray Yonkura
(202) 225-2676
Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007
SPEECH OF
HON. JIM JORDAN
OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 3, 2007
Mr. JORDAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to express my opposition to H.R. 1592, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
This measure represents an unprecedented departure from the deeply rooted American principle of equal justice under law.
Justice should be blind. It should be equal for all Americans, and it should be rendered in a criminal justice system that does not take such issues as race, gender, and religion into consideration.
It makes no sense to me that crimes committed against one citizen should be punished any more or any less than crimes committed against another, which is what this bill will do.
Violent crimes that are not aimed at a certain class of people, like those committed recently at Virginia Tech, are just as reprehensible as those that are committed for other reasons.
Yet this bill would likely treat the senseless, random violence at Virginia Tech less harshly than other, less "random" crimes.
Even worse, the bill asks local law enforcement to infer if a crime was committed "because of" bias toward a protected group. This essentially means that one's "thoughts" or "feelings" might be evidence of hate, and can be considered when determining whether a crime was indeed a "hate" crime.
Let me say that again. The bill would ask law enforcement to consider one's potential "thoughts" as evidence of "hate."
Mr. Speaker, this is the dangerous, likely unconstitutional threat that has caused great concern to so many residents of Ohio's 4th Congressional District.
Upon consideration of this bill in the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Speaker, I sent you a letter, co-signed by many of my Republican colleagues on the committee. The letter expressed concern about H.R. 1592's "thought crime" provisions and their potential to categorize individuals who share spiritual or gospel messages as hate criminals.
In the letter, we noted that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed Resolution 060356, which castigated Cardinal William Levada and the Catholic Church for opposing the adoption of children by homosexuals. The resolution, perhaps prophetically, describes the Church's policy using such words as "hateful," "discriminatory," "insulting," and "callous."
It is easy to see how this type of inflammatory anti-religious assertion emanating from a governmental body is disconcerting to those who espouse deep religious beliefs.
This so-called hate crimes bill not only discards the fundamental American legal principle of equal justice, it also lays the groundwork to criminalize individuals and groups that might not share the liberal values of places like San Francisco.
It is rather ironic that on this, the National Day of Prayer--a day where Americans gather to celebrate our religious heritage--liberal members of this House are uniting to pass a bill that could deem their prayerful voices as "hateful."
I urge a "no" vote on this bill…
