ironic for constitutional scholars, because when he says we re going to go the farthest we can, he actually hasn t. you know, he could actually prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but he has not. and the president has never endorsed that view. so it s a somewhat mixed legacy that he seems to be intent now on correcting, which i think is a good thing. but in terms of challenging this, christi, i think people are going to have a hard time. this falls really in the wheelhouse of the president. he s doing what other presidents have done in the past. let s pull that string you just mentioned for a moment, that this is not as far as the federal government could go and possibly creating, making same-sex marriages or those who are in same-sex marriages protected some other way, through hate crime legislation. what would that extra string be? and is this a signal that they re going this way? because there s been an evolution over time. yes, victor, i think you used
indictment on? ted can you answer that. sure. i think that. if the races were reversed, would we see federal hate crime legislation filed by the justice department? well, i would hope so, if, in fact, the evidence was sufficient to show what we have here. we have a white guy who specifically say that he is looking for an african-american to knock out on national tv not as that question markenned i agree with fred whether the requisite intent for the hate crime is there but s. but i do believe this is going to be a test case. the requisite is there not to interrupted you. the law does not protect being stupid. this guy take as self-y of himself bashing himself in the head. ufned the statute the feds have to certify that there is no jurisdiction in texas or that texas specifically prosecute the case or that this case is necessary to be prosecuted by the justice department to ensure justice.
ted can you answer that. sure. i think that. if the races were reversed, would we see federal hate crime legislation filed by the justice department? well, i would hope so, if, in fact, the evidence was sufficient to show what we have here. we have a white guy who specifically say that he is looking for an african-american to knock out on national tv not as that question markenned i agree with fred whether the requisite intent for the hate crime is there but s. but i do believe this is going to be a test case. the requisite is there not to interrupted you. the law does not protect being stupid. this guy take as self-y of himself bashing himself in the head. ufned the statute the feds have to certify that there is no jurisdiction in texas or that texas specifically prosecute the case or that this case is necessary to be prosecuted by the justice department to ensure justice. all right.
motive obviously it exaggerates the seriousness of the crime and brings in federal authorities as well. what do you think? hate-based crime or laws like this good or bad, paul? the jury s very much out on it. the idea behind it was that it would sort of send a message that society won t tolerate picking on people because of their gender, or their color, or their sexual orientation, but statistically it s too soon for us to know whether it s had an impact. i mean, texas, you know, getting back to the question you just asked, why this case? because a lot of people are saying right. there were a lot of other cases. right. right. there were some in new york involving victims who were white which were not prosecuted as federal cases, but new york has strict hate crime legislation and even texas, by the way, has its own local statute. i was looking at the penalty. i think the penalty is more severe under texas law. he could have faced 20 years in prison. it s 10 years under
welcome to both of you. ben ferguson, let me start with you. what is the issue here? is it because two of the three alleged killers here were black, therefore it must be a race crime? we found from some of these tweets which was that he said he didn t like white people and he was planning on going out and killing people and that would be what many would say is a hate crime. if we have hate crime legislation then it should be used appropriately when someone goes out to kill someone of another race based on their race and at least for one of these young men, there was a motivation there through his own words, not through speculation, that he did not like anyone that was white, and we see this also happen with a lot of gang initiations in this country, where a lot of gang members who happen to be of one race will go out and purposely attack someone of another race hang on, hang on hang on,