Obama signs hate crimes bill into law

Carol E. Lee

President Barack Obama signed expanded hate crimes legislation into law Wednesday, drawing praise from his attorney general and a tearful response from Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old Wyoming college student who was killed in 1998 because he was gay.

“After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we’ve passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are,” Obama said at an East Room signing ceremony for the legislation, which was part of the 2010 defense appropriations bill.

Obama also lauded the work that the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), whose widow and children were in the audience, did over the years on the hate crimes legislation.

As she left the ceremony, Vicki Kennedy said of her late husband: “I imagine that he’s smiling.”

Attorney General Eric Holder called the new law “the next great civil rights bill.”

“This is a great tool for the Justice Department, and I think significantly improves the quality of life for people with disabilities, for women and for gay and lesbian Americans,” Holder said as he exited the East Room.

Holder said the new law will allow the Justice Department to probe more allegations of hate crimes and to assist state and local prosecutors with investigations of theirs.

Obama said he had promised Judy Shepard, when he met with her in the Oval Office in May, that the day would come when he signed legislation named after her son into law.

Shepard said afterward that it means “everything” to her family and that she hopes “what happened maybe won’t happen again.”

“This is just the first step. We have a lot to do that’s left. We need to be grateful for this and move on,” Shepard said as her husband, Dennis, and son, Logan, stood nearby. “I just can’t even tell you how great it feels.”

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