Thursday, May 03, 2007

Hate Crimes and the White House   [Ramesh Ponnuru]

"The administration has a particularly noxious position on this issue—'that hate crimes laws are fine for all targeted groups except gays.'" So says Bradford Plumer at the New Republic, quoting Andrew Sullivan. What's their evidence? Sullivan has quoted the administration's statement of policy in full, and there is no specific objection to adding anti-gay crimes to the list of hate crimes. The administration's major objection seems to be that the bill federalizes a large class of hate crimes (current law requires hate crimes to infringe on federally protected activities before the feds intervene). If the Democrats advanced a bill that merely added anti-gay crimes to the list of federal hate crimes, without expanding the scope of hate-crimes laws generally, Plumer and Sullivan would have the beginnings of an argument. But they don't now.

05/03 04:18 PMShare