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 Legislative Advertising by Texas Eagle Forum, P.O. Box 795354, Dallas, TX 75379. Vote on Senate Hate Crimes Bill Could be Imminent The Hate Crimes bill continued its relentless march through the state’s upper chamber last Thursday when it was placed on the Senate Intent Calendar. The bill is now in line to be heard before the full Senate, provided it receives a 2/3 vote in favor of consideration. With Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff standing in abstention on procedural votes, supporters of the bill must convince 20 out of the remaining 30 senators to vote in favor of floor consideration in order to move it off the Intent Calendar. This means that we need only 11 senators to vote against consideration of the Hate Crimes bill in order to kill it. Complicating matters, however, is the emergence of a proposed amendment to the bill that would reportedly eliminate any reference to “sexual orientation.” Senator Todd Staples (R-Palestine) is authoring the amendment, and is rumored to have the support of a number of Senate Republicans. The removal of the sexual orientation category does not mitigate the fundamentally flawed nature of hate crimes legislation. Hate crimes violates the spirit of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution by singling out specific groups for enhanced legal protection from certain types of crime, and imperils our First Amendment right to free speech by meting out additional punishments based solely on the content, not just the intent, of the criminal agent’s motive. Simply scratching gays off the list of favored groups cannot “fix” hate crimes. **ACTION ITEM** The hate crimes bill (SB87) could be heard as early as tomorrow morning. Please call your senator and ask him to vote against consideration of SB87. In addition, please contact as many of the Republican senators as possible and ask them to vote against consideration of hate crimes legislation and the Staples amendment.
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