Feds invoked Commerce Clause to make 'hate crimes' case

[Feuer Frei!]

What does the federal hate crimes law inspired by the murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. have to do with an internal dispute among the Amish in which the beards of men and the hair of women were forcibly sheared?
“The scissors used to cut the hair were manufactured in one state and used in another,” explained Edward Bryan, defense lawyer for Amish bishop Samuel Mullet Sr., who was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.


SOURCE (http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/amish-prosecuted-because-scissors-crossed-state-lines/)

[GoldenRivet]

So let me get this straight...

an amish man, cuts the beard of another amish man, thats a hate crime?

and ... ummm...


you know what?






never freakin mind :nope:

[Tribesman]

So they didn't invoke the commerce clause to make the hate crime case.
The commerce clause only deals with obtaining the tools which they intended to commit their crimes with, and hiring a driver and vehicle to transport the criminals across state lines to commit their crimes.

[August]

Anyone else see the irony in the technology eschewing Amish attackers using battery operated scissors to commit their crime?

[flatsixes]

I agree with Tribesman. One of the threshold conditions of a federal hate crime (18 USC 249 (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/249)) is that the defendant(s) alleged conduct results (how ever marginally) from an action or instrument involving interstate commerce. Otherwise, the feds have no basis for extending their jurisdiction to a state criminal matter.

To be sure, the Commerce Clause is mightily abused, both by the feds, and by private parties against state governments (I've done my share of CC cases), but this action isn't a Commerce Clause matter, and the author of the article only had to read as far as page two (http://www.wkyc.com/assetpool/documents/120328052727_Superseding%20Indictment%20filed.pdf) to figure that out.

[Wolferz]

They probably invoked the RICO statute too. Amish mafia ya know?

[Platapus]

They probably invoked the RICO statute too. Amish mafia ya know?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_Mafia

[Wolferz]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_Mafia\\:shifty::shifty:

Nothing at that link. Nothing at all.:shifty:

[Tribesman]

Nothing at that link. Nothing at all.:shifty:
That is because you need an Amish computer to access the information, your computer obviously isn't hand crafted wood and powered by clockwork.