Opinion

PUNISH THE CRIME, NOT THE THOUGHT

Senate Democrats achieved one of their longtime goals this month — an ex pansion of federal “hate crime” law.

Tacked on as an amendment to the defense-appropriations bill, the Matthew Shephard Hate Crimes Prevention Act — named after a gay man murdered in Wyoming in 1998 — includes essentially the same legislative language that Sen. Edward Kennedy has long pushed.

It expands federal hate-crime protection to gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.

Now, it’s easy to think hate-crime laws are harmless. After all, why not outlaw “hate” for one group or another?

One problem, of course, is that laws can’t make hate disappear. Another: They encroach on free-speech rights.

Even more troubling, these laws force prosecutors to try to read minds: Was a particular crime committed out of hatred for the victim’s identity — or for some other reason?

Hate-crime laws are also hard to apply evenly to all groups, as experience has shown. And federal versions introduce yet another problem: In effect, they take the power to prosecute crime away from states.

Somewhat surprisingly — but to its credit — the ACLU strenuously opposes the bill, finding it overly broad.

“An otherwise unremarkable violent crime should not become a federal hate crime simply because the defendant visited the wrong Web site, belonged to a group espousing bigotry or subscribed to a magazine promoting discriminatory views, however wrong and repugnant those beliefs may be,” the group says.

Alas, the ACLU does back a House version with slightly broader protections for religious speech and association.

Meanwhile, the man convicted of killing Matthew Shepard is serving two life sentences. In other words, justice was served at the state level — without the need for a federal hate-crime bill.

The same year, James Byrd, a black Man, was dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas — a crime all too reminiscent of lynchings during the Jim Crow era.

Unlike racist thugs in those days, Byrd’s murderers were quickly arrested, tried and convicted. Two were sentenced to death, the third to life in prison. Again, no federal hate-crime law was needed.

Hate-crime legislation will soon land on President Obama’s desk. He’s promised to sign it.

That’s too bad. Because, while hate-crime bills sound well-intended, they wind up doing more harm than good.