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**Washington, DC**

**April 26, 2007**

**Thinking Around Thought Crimes:** This week, the House Judiciary
Committee marked up (amended) H.R. 1592, the "Thought" Crimes bill.
Although expectations were low for Republicans entering markup, they
nevertheless introduced a series of amendments to the bill.

The amendments ranged from Rep. Bob Goodlatte's (R-VA) amendments to add
senior citizens and pregnant women to the classes protected by the
thought crimes legislation to Rep. Steve King's (R-IA) amendment to
change the word *gender* to sex in the bill's language. These amendments
failed as well as over a dozen other amendments offered by House
Republicans.

One key amendment, introduced by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), sought to
clarify that the hate crimes bill would not affect the constitutional
right to religious freedom and would ensure that future courts would not
construe this statute to infringe on a person's religious liberty.

As Rep. Pence outlined in his opening remarks at the markup, ". . . the
road we could be led down is one in which pastors, religious
broadcasters and evangelical leaders who are speaking their own personal
convictions could be prosecuted under hate crimes statutes."

Critics of H.R. 1592 point out that these failed amendments serve a
useful purpose by highlighting the real intent behind the liberal push
for hate crimes legislation. The real intent is to enshrine homosexuals
as a protected class of individuals and not to extend protection to even
more vulnerable segments of the population.

The bill passed committee along party lines by a vote of 20 to 14 and is
expected to be on the House floor sometime next week for debate and a
vote.

"If enacted, this type of broad-based, all-inclusive legislation is more
harmful than helpful to Christian schools that make enrollment and
hiring practices based on the tenants of our faith," said Dr. Keith
Wiebe, President of the American Association of Christian Schools.

***ACTION: Please call your Representative and urge him or her to vote
NO on H.R. 1592. Contact information can be obtained at
[www.house.gov](http://www.house.gov/).***

**Successful Maneuverings:** "The Motion to Recommit" is one of the most
powerful tools available to the minority party in the U.S. House of
Representatives. The procedure allows a minority member to offer the
motion and, if passed, return a bill to its original committee,
effectively killing the bill. A motion to recommit *with instructions*
returns the bill to committee for members to amend. Members of the
minority party, in this case Republicans, have priority in offering such
a motion.

This week, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) offered a motion to recommit with
instructions for H.R. 362, "10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science
and Math Scholarship Act." Included in the original bill was language
that would have paved the way for national standards and testing set by
the federal government.

Rep. Hoekstra, sponsor of the House A-Plus Act that would restore
federalism to the No Child Left Behind law, offered the motion to
recommit with instructions that the national standards and testing
provision from H.R. 362 be stricken from the bill. His attempt was
successful and passed with a vote of 408-4.

Were the bill to have passed with the omitted section, the new law would
have been at odds with two sections of the No Child Left Behind Act,
which prohibit the federal government "from mandating, directing,
reviewing, or controlling a State, district, or school's choice of
instructional content or curriculum" and the Department of Education
from "endorsing, approving, or sanctioning any curriculum for an
elementary or secondary school."

Hoekstra said of the motion, "Education decisions are best determined at
the local level by parents and school boards. The legislation as
presented before the House would have taken us further in the opposite
direction."

\"We need to work harder on removing educational policy out of the hands
of the federal government and back to states and local communities,\"
Hoekstra said. \"We should be advocating for greater freedom and more
flexibility, not more one-size-fits-all solutions created by Washington
bureaucrats.\"

**Constitutional Choice:** A new report out this week finds that school
choice is constitutional in nearly every state. This week the Institute
for Justice (IJ), in conjunction with the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC), released its report entitled "School Choice and State
Constitutions: A Guide to Designing School Choice Programs."

The report is the first comprehensive manual for legislators and school
choice advocates. The guide examines the case law in each state and then
makes specific recommendations for tailoring school choice programs in
the states that will withstand legal challenges to their
constitutionality.

According to Clark Neilly, an IJ attorney who coauthored the study, "A
well-designed school choice program should pass constitutional muster
nearly everywhere. Opponents have become increasingly creative in their
use of state constitutions to try to thwart equal educational
opportunity, but this report debunks their bogus constitutional claims."

The study also addresses the Blaine Amendments, which are the
contentious provisions found in 37 state constitutions that prevent
government financial assistance be given to private schools. For many
years, the Blaine Amendments were used as a bludgeoning tool of state
school choice programs, but this study challenges that myth.

According to the report, there are currently 20 school choice programs
in 11 states and the District of Columbia, and the movement is gaining
momentum since it was declared constitutional in concept by the U.S.
Supreme Court in 2002.

"In almost every state, the question is not whether there can be school
choice, but how best to achieve it," said IJ Senior Litigation Attorney
Matt Komer.  "Each state has a distinct legal environment, and the best
way to withstand legal challenges from school choice opponents is to
carefully tailor legislation accordingly."

"With the information available in this guide, state legislators will be
more prepared than ever before to champion educational opportunities in
their states," said Matt Warner, ALEC Education Task Force Director. 
"And they will have the assurance that their programs are
well-positioned to withstand opponents' legal attacks."

The report can be accessed at the following link:
<http://www.ij.org/publications/other/sc_50_state_report.html>

*The Washington Flyer* Staff Writer: Jennifer Groover

*The Washington Flyer* Editor: Maureen Wiebe