Hate Crimes: Summary of Selected Proposals and Congressional Authority (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
May 17, 2002 |
| Report Number |
RL30681 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Charles Doyle, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Hate crime legislation ( S. 625 / H.R. 1343 ), comparable to a measure which
passed the Senate as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001
(but which was dropped prior to passage), has been introduced with a substantial number of
cosponsors in both the House and Senate. It has been reported out of committee without change in
the Senate, S.Rept. 107-147 . It outlaws hate crimes, establishes a system of Justice Department and
grant program assistance, and instructs the Sentencing Commission to examine adult recruitment of
juveniles to commit hate crimes. An alternative ( H.R. 74 ), more sweeping in its
criminal provisions and more modest in its grant provisions, has also been proposed.
In both alternatives, the newly established federal offenses take two forms and are based on
Congress' legislative authority under the commerce clause, the legislative sections of the Thirteenth,
Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendment. One species outlaws hate crimes committed on the basis of
race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability under various commerce
clause circumstances and appears consistent with the Supreme Court's pronouncements in
Lopez and
Morrison. The other forbids hate crimes committed on the basis of race, color, religion
or national
origin. Although its claim to Congressional authority seems strongest when based on the Thirteenth
Amendment and proscribing violence committed on the basis of race, its hold appears otherwise
more tenuous.
The text of proposed hate crime offenses, sundry federal criminal civil rights laws, as well as
a summary of various state hate crime statutes are appended. An abridged version of this report ,
stripped of the footnotes, authorities, and appendices, is available under the title, Hate Crimes:
A
Sketch of Selected Proposals and Congressional Authority , CRS Report RS20678 (May 17,
2002);
for additional related information, see Teasley, Hate Crime Legislation: An Update , CRS Report 98-300 (July 31, 2001).
