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Schedule Registration Housing |
| Friday, January 7, 2000 4:00-5:45 p.m. |
Marriott Ballroom Salon III
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel Lobby Level |
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Joint Program of Sections on Civil Rights and Criminal Justice |
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| Frederick M. Lawrence, Boston University, and Chair and Program Chair, Section on Civil Rights | |
| Christopher Slobogin, University of Florida, and Chair, Section on Criminal Justice |
| Federal Bias Crime Law | (Program to be published in Boston University Law Review) |
| Moderator and Speaker: | |
| Frederick M. Lawrence, Boston University | |
| Speakers: | |
| John S. Baker, Jr., Louisiana State University
Sara Sun Beale, Duke University Andrew Eric Taslitz, Howard University Lu-In Wang, University of Pittsburgh |
| The past twenty years have seen a revolution in the legal response to bias-motivated violence. Virtually every state now expressly criminalizes bias crimes. At the present time, however, there is no pure federal bias crime statute. There are elements of bias crime laws in federal criminal law. A litany of criminal interferences with certain federally protected activities, if committed because of the victim's race, color, religion or national origin, is proscribed by 18 U.S.C. § 245. Moreover, federal criminal law includes enhanced penalties for federal crimes committed with bias, and the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996 creates a special federal crime for arson directed at places of worship. Yet there is still not a pure federal bias crime law. |
| During the past years, Congress has considered a federal hate crime law, most recently the Hate Crime Prevention Act of 1999, which would amend section 245 of Title 18 so as to delete the current requirements that bias crime victims have engaged in one of six narrowly defined "federal protected activities" in order to fall within the reach of federal criminal law enforcement protection and would extend the protection of federal law to bias crimes motivated by the victim's sexual orientation, gender or disability. |
| The Hate Crime Prevention Act and similar legislation raises many significant questions that implicate fundamental values of the American polity, including free expression and federalism. This panel will consider a number of these questions, including whether the problem of bias crimes is getting worse, whether is it appropriate for a criminal law to punish on the basis of a perpetrator's motivation, whether gender and sexual orientation should be included in a federal bias crime law, and whether a federal bias crime law is consistent with the proper division of authority between state (and local) government and the federal government. |
| Business Meeting of Section on Civil Rights at Program Conclusion |