Pastors, conservative group challenge constitutionality of hate crimes law
The new federal hate crimes law is being challenged by a group of pastors and a conservative organization, who claim the law violates several provisions of the Constitution.
Main Justice reports that lawyers from the Thomas More Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of Pastors Levon Yuille, Rene Ouellette and James Combs as well as Gary Glenn, the president of the American Family Association of Michigan.
The complaint alleges that the law, passed to stop bias-motivated crimes against gay, lesbian bisexual and transgendered individuals, violates the First, Fifth and Tenth Amendments, as well as the Commerce Clause. It lists Attorney General Eric Holder as the defendant, and is the first constitutional challenge to the new hate crimes law’s provisions.
“[T]he Hate Crimes Act .. promotes [an] Orwellian concept: thought crimes,” the complaint states. “[It] criminalizes certain ideas, beliefs, and opinions, and the involvement of such ideas, beliefs, and opinions in a crime will make the crime deserving of federal prosecution. Consequently, government officials, including Defendant, are claiming the power to decide which thoughts are criminal under federal law and which are not. [The] Hate Crimes Act is intended to send a government endorsed message to those persons who oppose the homosexual agenda on the basis of deeply held religious beliefs, such as Plaintiffs, that their religious beliefs are disfavored and the equivalent of racist beliefs.”
A Justice Department spokesman told Main Justice that the government would “defend these vital protections in court.”
HT: ABA Law Journal
February 18th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
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This is a tough situation. I mean on one hand you have the gays wanting equal right, and on the other hand you have people fighting against this right. If people want to be gay, fine it’s their business. But if they want normal right, such as adoption, I think that’s gone too far. I just hope there’s a way we can provide equal rights to homosexuals, just not all the rights. If that makes any sense. Thanks for posting this article up.