U.S. District Judge Dan Polster rejected the arguments by defense attorneys that the Mathew Byrd James Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act is unconstitutional.   16 members of an Old Order Amish sect based in Jefferson County have been charged with the crime or aiding and abetting the others for allegedly cutting off the beards and hair of Amish members whom they considered had broken religious rules.

 University of Akron Law professor J. Dean Carro,  one of the attorneys who filed the motion, is representing Lester Miller in the case.  Carro carries a pocket version of the US Constitution in his pocket. He says the hate crime law goes beyond the scope of Congress. 

 “The Congress has very limited powers.”

In an interview with WKSU before Polster’s ruling,  Carro laid out the argument that Congress police powers are limited to slavery and interstate commerce.  

“Given the fact that the Amish are largely intra state – within the state- they have minimal impact on interstate commerce, for example, they don’t connect to the electric grid.

The government argues that interstate commerce kicks in because a pair of horse shears allegedly used to cut the hair and beards were made in New York.

Carro:  “In our view if scissors qualify then there’s nothing that Congress cannot reach.”

 In the Jimmy Dimora Trial, the government charged the former commissioner with federal crimes because marble countertops used as a bribe were made out of state. 

Another part of the motion filed in the Amish case was over religion.  

CARRO  “Assuming Congress has the power, it appears that Congress’s purpose was to protect minority religions from being attacked by  majority religions. “

Urycki    “Majority or minority depends on location doesn’t it?” 

Carro “It could but this is one religion, that is, the Old Amish Order.  It’s our view that that’s an intra-religious activity  and therefore not contemplated by Congress to be covered by the statute.”

Judge Polster rejected that argument writing –quote- "By the Defendants' logic, a violent assault by a Catholic on a Protestant, or a Sunni Muslim on a Shiite Muslim, or an Orthodox Jew on a non-Orthodox Jew, would not be prohibited by this statute."   

Carro and defense attorney Wendi Overmyer had also argued that the disciplinary action by the Amish amounted to religious speech.  Judge Polster called that claim offensive writing that such “violent acts are designed to punish individuals who exercise their religious beliefs, or to chill others from doing so." 

A trial for the 16 defendants has been set for the end of August.