Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement after President Obama signed into law an expansion of federal hate crimes statutes.

“Supporters of hate crimes laws may have their hearts in the right place, but they ignore the fundamental constitutional principle of equal protection under the law,” said Congressman Price. “The underlying motive for crimes committed because of an individual’s membership in a particular subset of the population is surely reprehensible, but all violent crimes are crimes of hate. If we subject certain motives to harsher punishment on the basis of thoughts and attitudes, we are placing a higher value on some victims than on others who were subject to similar illegal acts. In effect, we are saying some Americans are more worthy of legal protection than others. That is both misguided and unconstitutional.

“Our legal system was designed to penalize actions, not thoughts. The mindset and attitudes of a criminal may be offensive, but thoughts – no matter how terrible – are not crimes. The criminalization of thought is a scary premise, and it sets us on an increasingly slippery slope. We should not be expanding unconstitutional hate crimes laws, we should be repealing them.”