The Chill Bill: The Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 and the Forgotten Dangers to the First Amendment

Not since its decision in Wisconsin v. Mitchell, has the United States Supreme Court squarely addressed whether hate crimes legislation regulates protected speech in violation of the First Amendment.1 However, the United States House of Representatives' passage of the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 ("House Bill 1592" or "Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007") on May 3, 2007 reignited the debate over the First Amendment implications of hate crimes legislation. 2 The bill represented the most ambitious federal criminal civil rights legislation in nearly forty years. 3 The Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 essentially aimed to expand the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to proscribe crimes motivated by bias based on gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. 4 House Bill 1592 in relevant part designated a hate crime as "willfully caus[ing] bodily injury to any person... because of the actual or