Summary
In his latest column attacking hate-crime laws, Nat Hentoff trots out his old arguments again - hate-crime laws will be abused, they violate the First Amendment by criminalizing thoughts and confer "special rights." He is wrong on all points ("Prosecuting hate crimes," Op-Ed, May 28).
Hate-crime laws do not punish "biased thoughts." Americans are free to think and believe whatever they want. It is only when an individual commits a crime based on those biased beliefs and intentionally targets another for violence or vandalism that a hate- crime statute is triggered. That's why the Supreme Court unanimously upheld hate-crime laws against a First Amendment challenge in 1993.See the full content of this document
Extract
For Hate-Crime Laws
Would Mr. Hentoff assert that our nation's civi...
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