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Enhanced Punishment Under The Texas Hate Crimes Act: Politics, Panacea, Or Pathway To Hell., David Todd Smith

St. Mary's Law Journal

Nearly without exception, modern legislatures have responded to the reprehensible nature and detrimental social effects of hate crime by enacting laws specifically designed to punish the offender’s discriminatory animus. The term “hate crime” describes criminal conduct which is motivated by the offender’s bias or prejudice against another cognizable group. Although the reprehensible nature of a hate crime is often apparent from the facts of any given case, the repercussions of these offenses exceed the ignoble character of any one specific act. Texas has now joined the ranks of these jurisdictions by adopting legal provisions which authorize heightened penalties upon a …

Loving The Medium: A Review Of Stephen Carter’S The Culture Of Disbelief, Emily A. Hartigan

Faculty Articles

Stephen Carter is a most gifted, unpredictable commentator on life and law in the United States today. He has staked out a distinct, complex position on race already, and begins to do the same on religion in his latest book, The Culture of Disbelief. This book is well-written, well-reasoned, and sprinkled with the wry twists and engaging stories that increasingly mark Carter’s style.

The book integrates some of Carter’s former writing on the theme he calls “religion as Hobby,” an attitude by the courts that he brings to the fore in his analysis of news articles, court opinions, and political …