Political Quotes

“I think that is actually predictable and let me tell my colleague why. Some States, but not all of them, but some of them already have hate crimes statutes, and they can already prosecute these cases; but all States, all of them, prosecute murder cases. They all prosecute assault cases. They all prosecute assault with intent to murder cases. They all today prosecute a battery case as a battery, assault as assault, rape as rape, murder as murder. What this would do is it would expand the jurisdiction. In every one of those cases, a person could go to Federal court or State court, every one of them, and, yes, the States are strapped for money. The counties are strapped for money. Sure, they would like for us to come in and pass a law that suddenly says that every crime out there, even armed robbery with a pistol or robbery, all of those, but particularly rape, murder, assault, battery cases, assault with intent to murder, suddenly these are all Federal cases, yes. I mean, from a money standpoint, how many Federal courts are we going to build? We would have to double the size of the Federal court, and sure, there are States that would just as soon take all these responsibilities away from them. There are other States, other law enforcement agencies, that think that their States are doing a good job. As I said, all of these acts defined by this thing are today prosecuted by the States and prosecuted in State court.”