What’s Up With The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act
The Advocate has a great summary of the legislative maze the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act still needs to go through before it ends up on Obama’s desk:
Despite numerous ups and downs, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act remains in tact and stands a reasonable chance of making it to President Barack Obama’s desk for a signature later this year.
The biggest hurdle to hate crimes becoming law is that while it passed the House as a stand-alone bill, it was not included in the House version of the Department of Defense authorization bill. Because the Senate passed hate crimes as an amendment to DOD legislation, the two versions of that bill must be reconciled in conference during August and September.
Along the way several senators attached “poison pill” amendments designed to kill the bill including Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama who’s amendment to the bill would have permitted the death-penalty as punishment for some hate crimes. The death penalty amendment was stripped from the bill in committee yesterday.
However GOP Senator John Thune of South Dakota’s amendment which would allow licensed gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines remains parasitically attached to the bill.
So what’s the bottom line? Congress goes on recess in August so don’t expect the hate crimes act to get passed till September.
LawDork.net also has a great analysis of the bill’s progress.
Update: The gun amendment was withdrawn this afternoon.
