Thought Crime Legislation Added To “Must Pass” Defense Bill
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Making it a federal offense to commit violent acts against people because of their gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation is a blatant violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. It says that criminals who assault you because of, say, the color of your skin will be treated differently from those who assault you because of the color of your money.
The idea that a “hate crime” is worse than any other crime sends a message to those who are murdered, raped, mugged or otherwise assaulted that their lives and their injuries are of less concern and of less importance because their assailants were blessedly free of bigotry.
Should people who prey on minorities, homosexuals, or women be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent possible? Emphatically yes. But while it may be more onerous to abuse someone for merely being different, the government is supposed to protect us against other people’s actions, not other people’s feelings or motives.
Should two otherwise identical rapes, robberies, assaults or murders be treated differently simply because of the presence or absence of a racial or sexual epithet or impure thought? To judge perpetrators by their motives instead of by their actions, to punish some more heavily than others for identical crimes, is to violate a bedrock principle of American justice: equal protection under the law.
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