Bush As Usual-Haten

Bush has threatened once more to use his veto
power to block the passing of long debated leg-
islation on hate crimes calling the law unnecessary.
But this bill is also backed by some republicans and
could once again show that the prez is once again
going against the will of the people. What are your
thoughts about this civil rights issue?


President Bush threatened today to veto a long-debated bill, headed for passage by the Democratic-controlled House, that would expand the federal hate-crime law to include violent acts motivated by a victim's sexual orientation, gender or disability. The House is expected later today to approve the measure, the first major expansion of the law since it was passed in 1968, with Republican support. The Senate is expected to follow suit soon. Just hours before the vote, the White House issued a statement calling the legislation unnecessary and declaring that that if it reached the president's desk, "his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

" In the Senate, the expansion of the bill is named after Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student whose fatal 1998 beating helped inspire the legislation. Shepard's parents were among those who have lobbied for the bill's passage. Also spurring the measure were other high-profile incidents, including the 1999 shooting attack on a Jewish community center in the San Fernando Valley by a white supremacist. The bill -- besides expanding the definition of crimes that would be covered under the law -- would broaden federal authority to aid state and local law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting hate crimes motivated by race, religion, national origin and color, as well as sexual orientation, gender and disability.

Under the 1968 law passed after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, federal authorities can investigate and prosecute violence motivated by a victim's religion, race, national origin or color if the act is committed against someone engaged in a federally protected activity, such as voting or attending public school. "Expanding the circumstances under which certain hate crimes maybe prosecuted by removing the 'federally protected activity' requirement will permit the federal government to provide assistance to state law enforcement in a wider range of circumstances, and criminalize instances of vicious bias-motivated crimes that presently fall outside the reaches of the federal criminal laws," according to a report by the House Judiciary Committee.





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