Christian Universities Join Indiana Hate Crimes Push

For years, left-leaning social activists have been attempting to push “hate crimes” legislation through Indiana’s part-time legislature and onto the governor’s desk. Much to the chagrin of complicit state media like the Indy Star, which threw away any sense of objectivity on the issue a long time ago, it hasn’t happened up to this point. But that may be about to change.

In late July, when vandals scrawled Nazi graffiti on the walls of a Jewish synagogue in an Indianapolis suburb, Governor Eric Holcomb stumbled all over himself hastily rushing in front of the nearest camera to call on lawmakers to rectify this grievous act by enacting a new statewide “hate/bias crimes” law. Despite super-majorities in both houses of the state legislature, it is likely that the upcoming session will see Republicans pass a law that they once understood was unnecessary at best, dangerous at worst.

Here’s why:

Hate Crimes laws are, despite having been enacted in a vast majority of states, objectively unconstitutional. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution demands equal protection under the law for all citizens. That means the punishment inflicted on a criminal who kills me is not to be gentler nor harsher than if that criminal killed you. To enhance the penalty for killing one class of people is to provide them more protection under the law, not equal protection.

Hate Crimes laws are, despite their fanfare and appeals to emotion, completely unnecessary and in many ways harmful to justice. You need to look no further than Indiana to understand this. Current state law already permits a judge to take into consideration the personal characteristics of a victim that motivated a crime, and then enhance a penalty accordingly.

Hate Crimes laws like the one Governor Holcomb proposes, actually limit the ability of a judge to do this.

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