The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission | SBC’s Land says legislation could lead to ‘serious infringements of our First Amendment’ | Comments http://erlc.com/ This feed provides all comments on "SBC’s Land says legislation could lead to ‘serious infringements of our First Amendment’." en web-master@erlc.com ℗ & © 2010 ERLC Comment 1 http://erlc.com/article/sbcs-richard-land-says-legislation-could-lead-to-serious-infringements-of-o#comment1 http://erlc.com/article/sbcs-richard-land-says-legislation-could-lead-to-serious-infringements-of-o#comment1 “Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution,” the bill says.

Mr Mohler says: “The bad news is the House of Representatives voted 237-180 to pass the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1592), which could well lead to serious infringements of our First Amendment freedom of speech protections in the United States.”

Who is mistaken?

]]> Fri, 04 May 2007 06:40:23 CST Comment 2 http://erlc.com/article/sbcs-richard-land-says-legislation-could-lead-to-serious-infringements-of-o#comment2 http://erlc.com/article/sbcs-richard-land-says-legislation-could-lead-to-serious-infringements-of-o#comment2 “... it is also a federalism issue, in that H.R. 1592 would constitute a giant leap in the federalization of criminal law in the United States,....”
Has anyone commenting on this bill actually read it yet?  The bill states:

`(b) Certification Requirement- No prosecution of any offense described in this subsection may be undertaken by the United States, except under the certification in writing of the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, or any Assistant Attorney General specially designated by the Attorney General that—

`(1) such certifying individual has reasonable cause to believe that the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person was a motivating factor underlying the alleged conduct of the defendant; and

]]> Fri, 04 May 2007 13:21:18 CST Fri, 04 May 2007 13:33:59 CST Comment 3 http://erlc.com/article/sbcs-richard-land-says-legislation-could-lead-to-serious-infringements-of-o#comment3 http://erlc.com/article/sbcs-richard-land-says-legislation-could-lead-to-serious-infringements-of-o#comment3 continued….
`(2) such certifying individual has consulted with State or local law enforcement officials regarding the prosecution and determined that—

`(A) the State does not have jurisdiction or does not intend to exercise jurisdiction;

`(B) the State has requested that the Federal Government assume jurisdiction;

`(C) the State does not object to the Federal Government assuming jurisdiction; or

`(D) the verdict or sentence obtained pursuant to State charges left demonstratively unvindicated the Federal interest in eradicating bias-motivated violence.

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