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Background on Hate Crimes Legislation
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2007 (LLEHCPA) would provide much needed tools for the federal government to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated crimes. In 2004, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs adopted a Resolution calling for federal hate crimes legislation.

Federal hate crimes legislation would help combat bias crimes in two ways. First, LLEHCPA would eliminate a serious limitation under the current law. Right now, the federal government can only be involved if a victim was attacked while engaging in specific federally-protected acts. These acts include voting and attending a public school. However, if the hate crime occurred in another context, the federal government would not be able to investigate or prosecute this crime. This prevents the federal government from investing and prosecuting many hate crimes—even if the local law enforcement agency is unable, unwilling, or neglecting its responsibility.

Second, this bill would expand the current federal hate crimes laws to include bias-motivated crimes against people because of sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability. Currently these crimes are not covered under the federal hate crimes laws. Neither the Department of Justice, nor any of its bureaus or divisions, is able to investigate or prosecute these crimes at all. This is a glaring hole in the current statue.

Congress has considered this bill several times in previous sessions, and in fact has passed it through chambers. Most recently, in the 109th Congress, the House of Representatives approved the text of this measure as an amendment to the Children’s Safety Act (HR 2622). In the 108th Congress, the Senate adopted this measure as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Action for Fiscal Year 2005 (S 2400). Unfortunately, in both cases, these provisions were then stripped out of the final bills.

JCPA has a long history of support for this important issue. This year, the Jewish Security and Bill of Rights Taskforce identified this bill as a top priority.
Rescources on Hate Crimes Legislation
Letter from Religious Organizations regarding Hate Crimes legislation