Broad Law Leads to Controversy

Civil rights groups have a field day when judges change laws that affect people.

"It was just terribly overbroad," Lewis said. "It's an absolutely needed law, it just needs to be done in a constitutional way." The law's author, Sen. Vincent Fort, an Atlanta Democrat, said he would start working on a new version of the law for the upcoming legislative session, which convenes in January.

This is a quote referring to the Georgia Supreme Court, which unanimously threw out the state's hate crimes law Monday, calling it overbroad and "unconstitutionally vague." The 7-0 decision called the four-year-old law "unconstitutionally vague." The law had called for stiffer criminal penalties for crimes where a victim is chosen because of "bias or prejudice." But, unlike similar laws in other states, it does not specify which groups might be victims.

They may be charged with federal offenses but I think they have the right idea.

Here's the article if you want to read it:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushate1026,0,4469373.story?coll=ny-top-headlines