Реферат: Mitchell V Wisconsin Essay Research Paper

Another more pressing problem is police unwillingness to investigate a

crime as hate-motivated (Cacas, 33). Certainly, the difficulting in

determining whether a crime is hate-motivated is one of the reasons

police are hesitant to pursue crimes as hate-motivated, and

illustrates yet another reason why such statutes should not exist.

Consider the following FBI guidelines to help determine whether a

crime is hate-motivated (Cacas, 33):

1. a substantial portion of the community where the crime occurred

perceives that the incident was bias-motivated;

2. the suspect was previously involved in a hate crime; and

3. the incident coincided with a holiday relating to, or a date of

particular significance to, a racial, religious, or ethnic/national

origin group

These guidelines certainly fail to offer any exact or definitive

system with which to classify crimes as hate-motivated.

Another case which is cometimes cited as a precedent to support

rulings such as Wisconsin v. Mitchell, is U.S. v. O?Brien. O?Brien

had burnt his draft card to protest the draft and the Vietnam War,

despite a law specifically forbidding the burning of draft cards.

The Supreme Court ruled that the statute did not differentiate between

public and private draft card burnings, and was therefore not a

government attempt to regulate symbolic speech, but a

constitutionality legitimate police power. The Court ruled that there

is no absolutist protection for symbolic speech.

Under O?Brien, the government may regulate conduct which incidentally

infringes upon First Amendment rights, as long as the government

interest is ?unrelated to the suppression? of belief or expression.

However, when states enact laws such as the Wisconsin statute, the

state is not regulating conduct despite its expressive elements, but