CNSNews reports that Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) has introduced a bill that would add perceived race, sexual orientation, gender, and disability to the scope of hate crimes legislation. Currently federal “hate crime” is defined being denied a federal right based on race, color, religion, or nationality.
The new scope is mind-boggling. Should we punish someone more if they discriminated against men than if they discriminated against women? Does the perceived ability to defend oneself mean that a normal person’s life is worth less than a disabled one?
Does the fact that the victim may be different than the attacker in some regard make the crime more deplorable? Isn’t the crime’s punishment bad enough, and if it isn’t, can’t we raise the penalty for everyone?
The bill’s most over-the-top feature is its justification:
According to the bill, Congress has the authority to oversee hate crimes because of its constitutional powers to supervise interstate commerce. “Such violence affects interstate commerce in many ways,” the bill states, and “instrumentalities of interstate commerce are used to facilitate the commission of such violence.”
Wow. As if Ms. Jackson-Lee has any hope of measuring the impact of discriminatory violence on interstate commerce. Commerce is the simply the buying and selling on a large scale. We can regulate buying and selling, but that’s it. There is no allowance for the regulation of external factors.
This is a power grab. Given the kind of people who want this power, we shouldn’t give it to them. We would be better off asking the Representative to continue searching for the American flag on Mars.
