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WASHINGTON. (AP) - The Senate on Tuesday dealt a major setback to a bill that would make violent attacks based on victims' sexual orientation or disabilities a federal hate crime.
The measure would add crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation and disability to the list of offenses already covered under a 1968 hate-crimes law that prohibits attacks based on race, religion or national origin.
Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi suggested the Senate should be working on terrorism prevention instead of hate crimes.
"The greatest hate crime of all, which we should be dealing with right now, is the hate crime of terrorism against America," Lott said.
"We ought to be fighting terror here at home," said Kennedy, a longtime champion of the bill. "That's what this is all about."
Current federal law allows only race, color, religion or national origin to be the basis of a federal hate-crime case, and the covered offenses are limited to crimes committed against a person engaged in one of six federally protected activities, such as voting or going to school.
Gays and lesbians, as well as the disabled, deserve the same protection, Smith said.
"It does seem to me that government's business is not to pick between who among its citizens it will defend, but that under the banner of equal protection and due process, we defend all citizens because as our founding document make clear, we are created equally," Smith said.
WASHINGTON. (AP) - The Senate on Tuesday dealt a major setback to a bill that would make violent attacks based on victims' sexual orientation or disabilities a federal hate crime.
The measure would add crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation and disability to the list of offenses already covered under a 1968 hate-crimes law that prohibits attacks based on race, religion or national origin.
Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi suggested the Senate should be working on terrorism prevention instead of hate crimes.
"The greatest hate crime of all, which we should be dealing with right now, is the hate crime of terrorism against America," Lott said.
"We ought to be fighting terror here at home," said Kennedy, a longtime champion of the bill. "That's what this is all about."
Current federal law allows only race, color, religion or national origin to be the basis of a federal hate-crime case, and the covered offenses are limited to crimes committed against a person engaged in one of six federally protected activities, such as voting or going to school.
Gays and lesbians, as well as the disabled, deserve the same protection, Smith said.
"It does seem to me that government's business is not to pick between who among its citizens it will defend, but that under the banner of equal protection and due process, we defend all citizens because as our founding document make clear, we are created equally," Smith said.
