I
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3670
To provide a civil claim for individuals who are victims of crimes motivated
by actual or perceived race, color, gender, religion, national origin, eth-
nicity, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 22, 1993
Mr. NADLER (for himself and Mrs. SCHROEDER) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To provide a civil claim for individuals who are victims
of crimes motivated by actual or perceived race, color,
gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orienta-
tion, or physical or mental disability.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bias Crimes Com-
pensation Act of 1993’’.
SEC. 2. CIVIL RIGHTS.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—
(1) bias-motivated crimes of violence constitute
crimes in violation of the victim’s right to be free
from discrimination on the basis of actual or per-
ceived race, color, gender, religion, national origin,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, or physical or mental
disability;
(2) State and Federal criminal laws do not ade-
quately protect against the bias element of bias-mo-
tivated crimes of violence, which separates these
crimes from acts of random violence, nor do those
laws adequately provide victims of bias-motivated
crimes of violence the opportunity to vindicate their
interests;
(3) existing bias and discrimination in the
criminal justice system often deprive victims of bias-
motivated crimes of violence of equal protection of
the laws and the redress to which they are entitled;
(4) bias-motivated crimes of violence have a
substantial adverse effect on interstate commerce, by
deterring potential victims from traveling interstate,
from engaging in employment in interstate business,
and from transacting with business, and in places
involved, in interstate commerce;
(5) bias-motivated crimes of violence have a
substantial adverse effect on interstate commerce, by
diminishing national productivity, increasing medical
and other costs, and decreasing the supply of and
the demand for interstate products;
(6) a Federal civil rights claim, as created in
this section, is necessary to guarantee equal protec-
tion of the laws and to reduce the substantial ad-
verse effects of bias-motivated crimes of violence on
interstate commerce; and
(7) victims of bias-motivated crimes of violence
have a right to equal protection of the laws, includ-
ing a system of justice that is unaffected by bias or
discrimination and that, at every relevant stage,
treats such crimes as seriously as other violent
crimes.
(b) RIGHT.—All individuals within the United States,
and the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the
United States, shall have the right to be free from bias-
motivated crimes of violence.
(c) CLAIM.—Any person, including a person who acts
under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom,
or usage of any State, who deprives an individual of the
right secured by subsection (b) shall be liable to the indi-
vidual injured, in a civil action in any court of competent
jurisdiction, for compensatory damages of not less than
$100,000, punitive damages, injunctive relief, declaratory
relief, or any combination thereof.
(d) LIMITATION, PROCEDURE, AND RULE OF CON-
STRUCTION.—
(1) LIMITATION.—Nothing in this section enti-
tles an individual to a claim under subsection (c) for
random acts of violence unrelated to bias or for acts
that cannot be demonstrated, by a preponderance of
the evidence, to be bias-motivated crimes of violence.
(2) NO PRIOR CRIMINAL ACTION.—Nothing in
this section requires a prior criminal complaint,
prosecution, or conviction to establish the necessary
elements of a claim under subsection (c).
(3) CONCURRENT JURISDICTION.—The Federal
and State courts shall have concurrent jurisdiction
over actions brought pursuant to this section.
(4) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Neither section
1367 of title 28 of the United States Code nor sub-
section (c) of this section shall be construed, by rea-
son of a claim arising under such subsection, to con-
fer on the courts of the United States supplemental
jurisdiction of any State law claim seeking the estab-
lishment of a divorce, alimony, equitable distribution
of marital property, or child custody decree.
(e) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section—
(1) the term ‘‘bias-motivated’’ means committed
because of, on the basis of, and due to (at least in
part) an animus based on, actual or perceived race,
color, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sex-
ual orientation, or physical or mental disability of
the victim;
(2) the term ‘‘crime of violence’’ means—
(A) an act or series of acts that would con-
stitute State or Federal offense of a kind de-
scribed in section 16 of title 18, United States
Code, and punishable by a maximum term of
imprisonment exceeding one year, but excludes
an offense against property that presents no se-
rious risk of physical or mental disability injury
to an individual; or
(B) one or more actions that would con-
stitute such offense but for the relationship be-
tween the person who takes such actions and
the individual against whom such actions are
taken;
whether or not such offense or such actions result in
criminal charges, prosecution, or conviction and
whether or not such actions were taken within the
United States or the special maritime and territorial
jurisdiction of the United States;
(3) the term ‘‘disability’’ has the meaning given
it in section 3(2) of the Americans With Disabilities
Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12102(2)); and
(4) the term ‘‘special maritime and territorial
jurisdiction of the United States’’ has the meaning
given such term in section 7 of title 18, United
States Code.
(f) LIMITATION ON REMOVAL.—Section 1445 of title
28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end
the following:
‘‘(d) A civil action in any State court arising under
section 2 of the Bias Crimes Compensation Act of 1993
may not be removed to any district court of the United
States.’’.
(g) AUTHORITY TO AWARD ATTORNEY’S FEE.—Sec-
tion 722(b) of the Revised Statutes of the United States
(42 U.S.C. 1988(b)) is amended by inserting ‘‘section 2
of the Bias Crimes Compensation Act of 1993,’’ after
‘‘Public Law 92–318,’’.
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