In The Washington Post, Henderson and Deitle Warn Against Harmful New Domestic Terrorism Legislation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Stephen Peters, [email protected]

“We do not need new laws; we need the resources and will to enforce the laws we have.”

WASHINGTON — In a powerful op-ed for The Washington Post, Wade Henderson, interim president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Cynthia M. Deitle, the Matthew Shepard Foundation’s director of civil rights reform and a former special agent with the FBI, discuss why Congress should not create a new domestic terrorism charge. 

“The worst way to respond to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol would be to further undermine the democratic ideals that were under attack that day. The civil and human rights community is united in opposition to federal legislation that would create a new domestic terrorism charge, as some members of Congress and the Biden administration are considering. Such a change could be turned unfairly against communities of color, religious minorities and political dissenters. We must hold the violent insurrectionists accountable now using the federal criminal statutes that have long been available to address white-nationalist violence and give no cover for the failure to use these tools in the past,” wrote Henderson and Deitle. “We do not need new laws; we need the resources and will to enforce the laws we have.”

Read Henderson and Deitle’s full op-ed in The Washington Post here.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

###