Orrin Hatch: “our Nation's recent history has been marred by some horrific crimes committed because the victim was a member of a…”

“our Nation's recent history has been marred by some horrific crimes committed because the victim was a member of a particular class or group. The beating death of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, WY, and then the dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper TX. These two spring readily to mind. I firmly believe that such hate-motivated violence is to be abhorred and that the Senate must raise its voice and lead on this issue. During the last 30 years, Congress has been the engine of progress in protecting civil rights and in driving us as a society increasingly closer to the goal of equal rights for all under the law. Historians will conclude, I have little doubt, that many of America's greatest strides in civil rights progress took place just before this present moment on history's grand timeline: Congress protected Americans from employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, religion and national origin with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Congress protected Americans from gender-based discrimination in rates of pay for equal work with the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and from age discrimination with the passage of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; Congress extended protections to immigration status with the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986, and to the disabled with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. And the list goes on and on.…”