WASHINGTON — The new “hate crimes” bill expected to be signed into law by President Obama Wednesday is another nail in the coffin for the First Amendment, according to attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund.

“All violent crimes are hate crimes, and all crime victims deserve equal justice,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley. “This law is a grave threat to the First Amendment because it provides special penalties based on what people think, feel, or believe. ADF will be on the front line to defend those whose free speech or free exercise of religion rights are violated by this unconstitutional law and to ultimately overturn this attack on freedom.”

Stanley, who heads the ADF Pulpit Initiative, an effort to defend the First Amendment rights of pastors from the pulpit, explained that virtually everywhere “hate crimes” laws have passed, prosecutions for speech have followed.

“ADF has clearly seen the evidence of where ‘hate crimes’ legislation leads when it has been tried around the world: It paves the way for the criminalization of speech that is not deemed ‘politically correct,’” Stanley explained.  “‘Hate crimes’ laws fly in the face of the underlying purpose of the First Amendment, which was designed specifically to protect unpopular speech.”

ADF warned about the dangers of the bill in May when the Senate was considering the House’s version of the bill, H.R. 1913. The Senate packaged it inside of a defense spending bill in an apparent attempt to ensure passage of the “hate crimes” measure. ADF submitted legal analysis to the House Judiciary Committee in April that advised of the “hate crimes” bill’s dubious constitutionality.

“These types of crimes are already punishable under existing federal, state, and local laws. Violent crimes should be punished regardless of the characteristics of the victim,” said Stanley. “Bills of this sort are designed to forward a political agenda and silence critics, not combat actual crime. The bottom line is that we do not need a law that creates second-class victims in America and that gives the government the opportunity to ignore the First Amendment.”

ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.