CIR Defends Amish Woman Convicted of Federal Hate Crime

Today CIR filed a brief in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of our client Kathryn Miller, an Amish woman convicted under a federal hate crimes law for forcibly cutting the beards and hair of other Amish in an effort to shame them as part of a religious dispute.

CIR argues that if the government’s view of the Commerce Power is correct, the federal government has virtually unlimited authority to criminalize all manner of purely local activities.  In addition, the brief notes that if the government’s view of the Hate Crimes Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act is correct, it would make many ritual circumcisions a federal “hate crime.”