{"id":1951833,"date":"2023-06-20T12:19:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T16:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/proposed-hate-speech-law-in-michigan-threatens-first-amendment-rights-conservatives-warn\/"},"modified":"2023-06-20T12:21:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-20T16:21:32","slug":"proposed-hate-speech-law-in-michigan-threatens-first-amendment-rights-conservatives-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/proposed-hate-speech-law-in-michigan-threatens-first-amendment-rights-conservatives-warn\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservatives caution against Michigan&#8217;s proposed &#8216;Hate Speech&#8217; Law, citing potential infringement on First Amendment rights."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fproposed-hate-speech-law-in-michigan-threatens-first-amendment-rights-conservatives-warn%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1951833&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0620\/ac582585-aba1-4501-b5a7-9a8bb3e355a5\/audio.mp3?length=4774509&#038;duration=398\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>A bill currently making its way through the Democrat-controlled Michigan State Legislature has sparked concerns among conservatives about the potential impact on free speech. The bill, known as HB 4474, aims to make it easier for prosecutors to bring felonious &#8220;hate crime&#8221; charges against dissident speech.<\/p>\n<p>The implications of this legislation have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/severe-addiction-rise-feared-as-at-home-drinking-soars-in-lockdown-ireland\/\" title=\"Severe Addiction Rise Feared as At-Home Drinking Soars in Lockdown Ireland\">raised alarm bells<\/a> for preachers, school administrators, teachers, parents, politicians, and citizen activists. If passed, the bill would amend the state&#8217;s Ethnic Intimidation Act of 1988 to consider it a hate crime if a person is accused of causing &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cuomo-faces-new-sexual-harassment-suit-after-recent-legal-victories\/\" title=\"Cuomo Faces New Sexual Harassment Suit After Recent Legal Victories\">severe mental anguish<\/a>&#8221; to another individual through perceived verbal intimidation or harassment.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed amendment defines &#8220;intimidate or harass&#8221; as a &#8220;willful course of conduct, involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A &#8216;Vague and Subjective&#8217; Standard<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;Words are malleable,&#8221; warns Attorney David Kallman of the Great Lakes Justice Center (GLJC), a non-profit legal organization dedicated to preserving liberty in America. &#8220;They can be redefined by whoever is in power.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Under the proposed statute, &#8216;intimidate and harass&#8217; can mean whatever the victim, or the authorities, want them to mean. The focus is on how the victim feels rather than on a clearly defined criminal act. This is a ridiculously vague and subjective standard,&#8221; he explains.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The absence of intent makes no difference under this law. You are still guilty of the crime because the victim felt uncomfortable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The bill will lead to the prosecution of conservatives, pastors, and parents attending a school board meeting for simply expressing their opposition to the liberal agenda,&#8221; Kallman adds.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Criminal Penalties for Speaking Out<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>If convicted, violators could face a fine of up to $10,000, up to five years in prison, or both. The bill does provide the court with the option of an alternative sentence.<\/p>\n<p>The text states, &#8220;An alternative sentence may include an order requiring the offender to complete a period of community service intended to enhance the offender&#8217;s understanding of the impact of the offense upon the victim and wider community.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Community service under this subdivision must be performed with the consent of\u2014and in support of\u2014the community targeted in the violation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This option,&#8221; Kallman argues, &#8220;amounts to being sentenced to a Soviet-style dissident reeducation camp.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Making Prosecutions Easy<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>During a hearing of the House Criminal Justice Committee, State Rep. Noah Arbit, the bill&#8217;s sponsor and a Democrat, testified that crimes motivated by sexual orientation cannot currently be prosecuted as hate crimes in Michigan. He believes that facilitating prosecutions and increasing penalties are necessary to address the issue of &#8220;rising hate crimes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, also a Democrat, testified that Michigan has the fifth-highest number of hate crimes committed per capita in the United States, with many more incidents going unreported. She believes that HB 4474, along with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/proposed-hate-speech-law-in-michigan-threatens-first-amendment-rights-conservatives-warn\/\" title=\"Conservatives caution against Michigan's proposed 'Hate Speech' Law, citing potential infringement on First Amendment rights.\">similar early judicial intervention measures<\/a>, can help prevent non-violent hate crimes from escalating into more serious offenses.<\/p>\n<p>With concerns about the potential impact on free speech and the broad interpretation of &#8220;intimidate and harass,&#8221; conservatives worry that this bill could have far-reaching consequences for individuals expressing their opinions and beliefs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bill in Michigan&#8217;s Democrat-controlled State Legislature aims to facilitate the prosecution of &#8220;hate crimes&#8221; related to dissenting speech. Conservatives are worried about the potential impact on free speech, as it could affect preachers, school administrators, teachers, parents, politicians, and citizen activists. The proposed legislation, HB, has raised concerns among conservatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":369,"featured_media":1951834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[4935,15867,6145,4539,6208,15338,6547,20075,4238,4487,5579,4554],"class_list":["post-1951833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-amendment","tag-caution","tag-citing","tag-conservatives","tag-hate","tag-infringement","tag-law","tag-michigans","tag-potential","tag-proposed","tag-rights","tag-speech"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1951833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1951834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1951833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1951833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1951833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}