Posted by Laura Glendinning in News and Analysis on October 28, 2009
WASHINGATON, D.C. (YBH.ME) – President Obama signed an omnibus defense bill today which covered cuts, spending and expanded hate crime legislation. Among many provisions, the bill kills the F 22 fighter jet program, discontinues a White House helicopter fleet replacement program, and okays the release of $130 billion in funds toward the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the President’s objections, the bill retains a funding provision for development of an alternative to the expensive F35 fighter jet.
President Obama with Judy Shepard in May 2009
After a decade of uphill efforts to change hate crime legislation, Democrats tacked the pet project onto the must-pass spending defense bill. The new measure broadens current hate crime law to include violence based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
The American Civil Liberties Union reportedly only reluctantly signed off on the bill’s wording, as the chilling of free speech has long been seen as a possible effect of the law. Noted Constitutional attorney John Whitehead, founder of the crusading Rutherford Institute, has stated, “on the whole, hate crime laws unnecessarily blur the distinction between what might be constitutionally protected, albeit deplorable, speech and criminal behavior.”
The Hate Crimes Act was signed and named in memory of Matthew Shepherd, brutally murdered in a frenzied Wyoming gay-bashing in 1998.