Hate Crimes Law, Part 2: Will Bush Administration Follow Through on Threat to Veto? Gail Heriot

H.R. 1592 was passed in the House of Representatives on May 3rd.  The vote was 237 to 180.  On the same day, the White House released a “Statement of Administration Policy” to this effect:

The Administration favors strong penalties for violent crime, including crime based on personal characteristics, such as race, color, religion or national origin.  However, the Administration believes that H.R. 1592 is unnecessary and constitutionally questionable. If H.R. 1592 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

The statement goes on to explain why–that state and local law enforcement authorities already have the capability of dealing with these crimes (and nearly all already have hate crimes statutes), that all violent crimes should be vigorously punished, not just those specified in the proposed law, and that it is not clear that the federal government has constitutional authority over all the crimes that the proposed bill purports to cover.

Fine.  The statement doesn’t touch on all the concerns that I wrote about earlier today, but it mentions some.  My questions are two-fold:  Will he follow through?  (Note that the statement gives him some wiggle room. It doesn’t say he will veto the bill; it simply says that his senior advisors will recommend a veto.)  If he does follow through, will he explain to the American people why?  If he doesn’t, the bill will be back again and again.