Veto Showdown Over Hate-Crimes Protection Bill?

Veto, veto, veto.

Bush, again, may exercise veto power over legislation passed in the House of Representatives to protect people from crimes committed against their "gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity".

Senior advisors recommended Bush veto the bill based on the following:

"the law is unnecessary, an intrustion on federalism, and constitutionally questionable as an exercise of federal power"

To a gay rights crusader like myself, vetoing a bill protecting people from crimes directed specifically at sexuality seems to be nothing short of an anti-gay double standard -- sexual orientation and gender identity remain frighteningly unprotected in many areas of law. Upon deeper examination of the text of the bill, however, I found my position to be obscured by the fact that the bill does not simply add sexual orientation to the 1968 federal hate-crimes law, but also considerably expands the power of the federal government to intervene in hate crimes.

According to the New York Times,

"The bill approved by the House, worded to cover people who are transsexual and transgender, would make it easier for federal authorities to take part in hate-crime investigations if local investigators are unable or unwilling to pursue them. The current hate-crime law protects people only while they are engaged in a federally protected activity, like voting or going to school, but the bill would lower the barriers."

Other opponents of the bill have argued that the bill's language is so broad that it could potentially encroach on free speech. Many law pundits, however, have come to consensus that this argument should not stand in the discussion of the bill's constitutionality.

The bill's advocates argue that the expansion of federal power in hate crimes coincides well with the addition of sexual orientation and gender identity because local powers may not enforce the law due to a prejudicial disposition toward this category of peoples.

The bill goes to the Senate next before a final draft reaches the President.