Mr. Speaker, I come before the House today in strong opposition to H.R. 1592, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
As Thomas Jefferson once said, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”
This legislation is unnecessary and bad public policy. Violent attacks on people or property are already illegal regardless of the motive behind them, and there is no evidence that the underlying violent crimes at issue here are not already being fully and aggressively prosecuted in the states. Therefore, hate crimes laws serve no practical purpose and instead serve to penalize people for their thoughts, beliefs or attitudes.
Some of these thoughts, beliefs or attitudes such as racism and sexism are abhorrent, and I disdain them. However, the hate crimes bill is broad enough to encompass legitimate beliefs, and protecting the rights of freedom of speech and religion must be paramount in our minds.
The First Amendment to the Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” America was founded upon the notion that the government should not interfere with the religious practices of its citizens. Constitutional protection for the free exercise of religion is at the core of the American experiment in democracy.
There is a real possibility that as this bill is written, religious leaders or members of religious groups could be prosecuted criminally based on their speech or protected activities under conspiracy law or section 2 of title 18, which holds criminally liable anyone who aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission; or one who “willfully causes an act to be done” by another.
In the debate at the Judiciary Committee, much was made of the fact that an amendment was adopted by the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Davis. However that amendment did not go far enough in making it clear that the bill will not limit religious freedom. The sponsor of the amendment admitted that a pastor could still be targeted under the bill for incitement of violence for simply preaching his religious beliefs. For example, if a pastor included a statement in his sermon that sexual relations outside of marriage is wrong, and a member of the congregation caused bodily injury to a person having such relations, that sermon could be used as evidence against the pastor.
Putting a chill on a pastor’s words, a religious broadcaster’s programming, an evangelical leader’s message, or even the leader of a small-group Bible study is a blatant attack on the Constitutionally-guaranteed right to freedom of religion.
Last week when the Judiciary Committee took up this bill, I offered an amendment to make it clear that the bill will not affect the constitutional right to religious freedom.
The Pence Amendment stated, “Nothing in this section limits the religious freedom of any person or group under the Constitution.”
Unfortunately, the amendment was defeated by the majority in the Judiciary Committee. Yesterday, I submitted the Pence Religious Freedom Amendment to the Rules Committee for consideration, but that committee chose to adopt a closed rule for today’s debate, effectively blocking my amendment and many other good amendments from consideration.
We must guard against the potential for abuse of hate crimes laws, and the Pence Amendment would have done so by stating once and for all that people and groups will not have their constitutionally-guaranteed right to religious freedom taken away.
Mr. Speaker, this bill threatens religious freedom by criminalizing religious thoughts. On this National Day of Prayer, let’s take a stand for the right of every American to believe, speak and pray in accordance with the dictates of their conscience. Take a stand for religious freedom and the First Amendment and vote no on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
