Better Watch What You Think

President Obama has signed the latest thought crimes bill. The law was attached to a defense authorization bill to help get it passed--a cowardly tactic, but what do you expect?

It does raise an interesting question. This bill extends hate crimes to include bad thoughts dealing with gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability. So the question is, as long as the Congress wishes to punish people extra for their beliefs, should we make sure that they punish all bad thoughts that go against the civil rights agenda, or is it okay if they only single out selected hateful thoughts?

Jacob Sullum at Reason is all over it:

At best, it's a feel-good law that will accomplish nothing. At worst, it will undermine the division of powers between the states and the national government by federalizing a wide range of violent crimes, further erode the constitutional ban on double jeopardy by inviting serial prosecutions for the same offense, and impinge on freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of religion. The threat to First Amendment rights is twofold: 1) Like other hate crime statutes, the law imposes extra punishment based on defendants' beliefs, and 2) it could be used as an excuse to investigate and/or prosecute people for aiding and abetting hate crimes through provocative speech.