[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 64 (Wednesday, April 29, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H4972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE PASSAGE OF THE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Madam Speaker, with all of the challenges that 
we have in our country, the wonderful reality is that we still hold 
these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that 
they are all equal because they are all God's children.
  In fact, Madam Speaker, the essence of America is that all people 
should be treated with the same respect and should be protected 
completely equally under the law. To break up people into different 
categories and say that one group is more worthy of protection than 
another and then to grant special protection to some groups and not to 
others, it fundamentally diminishes the protection of all of the other 
remaining groups.
  Madam Speaker, a short time ago, this body voted to pass H.R. 1913, 
the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, and I 
believe that it did just that. Regardless of whether a person is white, 
black, handicapped, healthy, sick, old, young, homosexual, 
heterosexual, rich, poor, a janitor, a Senator, a veteran, a police 
officer, a senior, or whatever the case is, he deserves equal 
protection under the law. That is the foundational premise of this 
Nation. The legislation that we voted on today moves us all directly 
away from that basic foundation in a profound and dangerous way.
  This legislation would prosecute individuals not on the bases of 
their crimes but on their alleged motivations for committing those 
crimes. It requires law enforcement officials and prosecutors to gather 
evidence of the offender's thoughts rather than of his actions and his 
criminal intent. This should strike us all as inherently dangerous.
  The First Amendment of our Constitution was crafted because our 
Founding Fathers recognized that the freedom of thought and belief is 
the cornerstone of every other freedom. It is the foundation of 
liberty, itself, because, without it, every other freedom, including 
the freedom of speech, becomes meaningless.
  Madam Speaker, there is another insidious aspect of this legislation 
which, I believe, would have the most tolerant Americans up in arms if 
they were truly aware of it, which is, not only does this legislation 
require law enforcement to investigate an individual's motivations--
those are the thoughts and beliefs that seemingly motivate him or her 
to commit a crime--but it would expand the scope of the prosecution to 
include individuals or members of organizations or religious groups 
whose ideas or words may have influenced a person's thoughts or 
motivations when he committed a crime.
  Under such a bill, individuals who may not have even been aware of 
the crimes could receive the same or similar penalties as the criminal, 
himself, receives. It would only take some arbitrary prosecutor to 
construe that an individual had influenced the beliefs or thoughts of a 
perpetrator of a crime and, thereby, somehow caused hateful or violent 
acts. This raises the very real possibility that religious leaders or 
members of religious groups could be prosecuted criminally based on 
their speech, association or other activities that have been 
specifically protected by the First Amendment of our Constitution for 
the last 220 years.
  Madam Speaker, this would have a devastating and chilling effect on 
free speech in America. Who could blame pastors, educators or any other 
cultural leaders if they chose to cease expressing their beliefs for 
fear of being thrown in prison and charged with a Federal crime? This 
is not rhetorical speculation. It has already happened in the case of 
the Philadelphia 11 and in other cases. In the Philadelphia 11, 11 
individuals were jailed, and they faced $90,000 in fines and 47 years 
in prison for simply speaking the gospel openly and publicly.
  One unscrupulous government entity plus this hate crimes legislation 
equals the perfect combination for tearing away from American citizens 
some of the most basic constitutional rights in our Nation's history. 
Advocacy groups and religious organizations will be chilled from 
expressing their ideas out of fear of criminal prosecution. In fact, 
``chilled'' is probably a profound understatement. Many will be simply 
terrified or intimidated into complete silence.
  The fundamental purpose of this body is to protect the lives and the 
constitutional rights of the American people regardless of who they are 
or what they believe. Unfortunately, the hate crimes legislation will 
do just the opposite by granting unequal protections based on personal 
beliefs and thoughts, and it will endanger the constitutional liberties 
of millions of Americans.

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